Virginia's warbler

Virginia's warbler
Virginia's warbler (female)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Parulidae
Genus: Oreothlypis
Species: O. virginiae
Binomial name
Oreothlypis virginiae
(Baird, 1860)

     Summer      Winter
Synonyms

Vermivora virginiae
Helminthophila virginiae[2]

Virginia's warbler (Oreothlypis virginiae) is a species of New World warbler.

Despite what its name may suggest, Virginia's warbler is not actually named after the American State of Virginia, which makes sense as the birds range only reaches as far east as the state of Texas. The bird's common eastern range is central and southern mountains of Colorado, central Wyoming, and central and western New Mexico. The bird was named for Virginia Anderson, the wife of an army surgeon who discovered the bird at Fort Burgwin, New Mexico, in 1858. When Spencer Fullerton Baird of the Smithsonian Institution fully described the bird for science in 1860 he honored the wishes of the warbler's discoverer and designated Virginia to be both the bird's common and scientific name.

Virginia's warbler is a small bird, only 4 to 4 1⁄2 inches (100 to 110 mm) in length. It is mainly gray in color, with a lighter colored under-belly and a white eye ring. The rump and undertail coverts are yellow. Males also have a yellow patch on their breast and a red cap, both of which are lacking in female and immature birds. Virginia's warbler can be easily mistaken for the Colima warbler, but it is smaller and has a more yellow rump.

Life history

Virginia's warbler is common in dense oak and pinyon woodlands and brushy streamside hills at altitudes ranging from 6,000–9,000 ft (1,800–2,700 m). It summers in the south-western United States and will migrate as far south as Belize during the winter, as well as stopping in several Caribbean islands such as the Bahamas, Cuba, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Nests are built on the ground, hidden amongst dead leaves and tufts of grass at the base of a shrub or young tree. The nest is cup-shaped and constructed from moss, grass, strips of bark, and roots. The female will lay between three and five eggs, which are white in color and dotted with fine brown speckles. Young are attended to by both sexes, but incubation period and other nesting habits are mostly unknown.

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Vermivora virginiae". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.1. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 16 July 2012.
  2. ↑ "Virginia's warbler". Avibase.

Further reading

Books

Thesis

Articles

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