Black-throated green warbler

The black-throated green warbler (Setophaga virens) is a small songbird of the New World warbler family.

Black-throated green warbler

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Parulidae
Genus: Setophaga
Species:
S. virens
Binomial name
Setophaga virens
(Gmelin, 1789)
Range of S. virens      Breeding range     Wintering range
Synonyms

Dendroica virens

It is 12 cm (4.7 in) long and weighs 9 g (0.32 oz), and has an olive-green crown, a yellow face with olive markings, a thin pointed bill, white wing bars, an olive-green back and pale underparts with black streaks on the flanks. Adult males have a black throat and upper breast; females have a pale throat and black markings on their breast.

Quintana, Texas Male
Female
Black-throated green warbler with chicks

The breeding habitat of the black-throated green warbler is coniferous and mixed forests in eastern North America and western Canada and cypress swamps on the southern Atlantic coast. These birds' nests are open cups, which are usually situated close to the trunk of a tree.

These birds migrate to Mexico, Central America, the West Indies and southern Florida. One destination is to the Petenes mangroves of the Yucatán. Some birds straggle as far as South America, with the southernmost couple of records coming from Ecuador.

Behavior

Black-throated green warblers forage actively in vegetation, and they sometimes hover (gleaning), or catch insects in flight (hawking). Insects are the main constituents of these birds' diets, although berries will occasionally be consumed.

The song of this bird is a buzzed zee-zee-zee-zooo-zeet or zoo-zee-zoo-zoo-zeet. The call is a sharp tsip.

This bird is vulnerable to nest parasitism by the brown-headed cowbird.

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Dendroica virens". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Curson, Jon; Quinn, David; Beadle, David (1994). New World Warblers. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 0-7136-3932-6.
  • Stiles; Skutch. A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. ISBN 0-8014-9600-4.
  • World Wildlife Fund (2010). "Petenes mangroves". In Mark McGinley; C. Michael Hogan; C. Cleveland (eds.). Encyclopedia of Earth. Washington, DC: National Council for Science and the Environment.


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