Orange-crowned Warbler

The Orange-crowned Warbler is yellowish-green above and below, with a yellowish line above the eye and faint yellow streaking below. The orange crown is seldom seen. Many birds are a duller green than shown in these photographs.    Length: 5 in.  Wingspan: 7 in.

Photograph © Greg Lavaty.

Sexes similar.

None.

Juveniles have two yellowish wing bars.

Orange-crowned Warblers inhabit brushy areas and undergrowth.

Orange-crowned Warblers eat insects and nectar, and during winter also tree sap and berries.

Photograph © Glenn Bartley.

Orange-crowned Warblers forage actively by gleaning from leaves, or by hovering.

Orange-crowned Warblers breed from Alaska across central and southern Canada, and south through the western U.S. states. They winter in the southern U.S. south to Central America, and occur across most of the U.S. during migration. The population appears stable.

More information:

Bent Life History

Visit the Bent Life History for extensive additional information on the Orange-crowned Warbler.

The Orange-crowned Warbler’s hardy nature, with tree sap and berries as part of its diet, makes it one of the few warblers to winter in the U.S. broadly and in significant numbers.

Of the several subspecies, the West Coast birds are the brightest orange.

The song is a rapid trill.  A short, high flight call is also given.

The Orange-crowned Warbler’s nest is a cup of twigs, bark, and leaves lined with finer materials and placed on the ground or in low vegetation.

Number: Usually lay 4-5 eggs.
Color: Whitish with darker markings.

Incubation and fledging:
The young hatch at about 11-13 days and fledge at about 10-13 days, though remaining dependent on the adults for some time.

Published by the Smithsonian Institution between the 1920s and the 1950s, the Bent life history series of monographs provide an often colorful description of the birds of North America. Arthur Cleveland Bent was the lead author for the series. The Bent series is a great resource and often includes quotes from early American Ornithologists, including Audubon, Townsend, Wilson, Sutton and many others.

Bent Life History for the Orange-crowned Warbler – the common name and sub-species reflect the nomenclature in use at the time the description was written.

The type race of the orange-crowned warbler makes its summer home in northwestern Canada and Alaska, from northern Manitoba to the Kowak River, migrating in the fall southeastward through the United States to its winter range in the southern Atlantic States and Gulf States, from South Carolina and Florida to Louisiana. It was discovered and named by Say (1823) early in May at Engineer Cantonment, on the Missouri River, while on its northward migration.

The main migration route is through the Mississippi Valley, northwestward in the spring and southeastward in the fall. It is very rare in spring in the northern Atlantic States, though there are a few records for even Rhode Island and Massachusetts, but there are many fall records for this region, some of them remarkably late. It seems to be rare at either season in Ohio; Milton B. Trautman (1940) gives only 10 records for Buckeye Lake, 5 in spring and 5 in fall. “Eight were noted in lowlands, within 10 feet of the ground, in dense tangles of blackberry bushes, rosebushes, or grapevines. The remaining 2, both fall birds, were in rather well-drained, brushy, and weedy fields.”

Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) says of its status in Alaska:

Throughout the wooded region of Northern Alaska, from the British boundary line west to the shores of Bering Sea, and from the Alaskan range of mountains north within the Arctic Circle as far as the tree-limit, this species is a rather common summer resident. It Is known along the shores of Bering Sea and Kotzebue Sound mainly as an autumn migrant, as it straggles to the southward at the end of the breeding season. Wherever bushes occur along the northern coast of the Territory it is found at this season, and at Saint Michaels it was a common bird each summer from the last of July up to about the middle of August, after which it became rare and soon disappeared. I have never noted it on the sea-coast during the spring migration.

The Prebles (1908) found it well distributed and probably breeding throughout the Athabaska: Mackenzie region. MacFarlane (1908) found it breeding as far north as the Anderson River. Kennicott, according to Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1874), found it nesting about Great Slave Lake. And Ernest Thompson Seton (1891) reported it as a common summer resident and breeding near Garberry, Manitoba.

Nesting: Herbert Brandt (1943) found two nests of the eastern orange-crowned warbler along the Yukon River in Alaska, about 20 miles up from the sea, on July 1, 1924. His first nest contained five eggs, advanced in incubation. The nest was near the bank of the river, “in a bush 18 inches from the ground. The nest was loosely made of coarse grass held together with bark strips, silvery plant down, and a few feathers, one of which was a mottled feather of the Northern Varied Thrush. Twenty feet away was another nest of the same species, which held three young just hatched and two pipped eggs. * * * The measurements of the two nests cited are: height, 2.25 to 3.00; outside diameter, 3.5; inside diameter, 1.75; and depth of cup, 1.50 to 1.75 inches.”

MacFarlane’s (1908) nests, found on the Anderson River, “held from four to six eggs each, and they were made of hay or grasses lined with deer hair, feathers and finer grasses, and were usually placed in a shallow cavity on the ground in the shade of a clump of dwarf willow or Labrador tea.”

Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1874) write:

The nests of this species, seen by Mr. Kennicott, were uniformly on the ground, generally among clumps of low bushes, often in the side of a bank, and usually hidden by the dry leaves among which they were placed. He met with these nests in the middle of June in the vicinity of Great Slave Lake. They were large for the size of the bird, having an external diameter of four Inches, and a height of two and a half, and appearing as If made of two or three distinct fabrics, one within the other, of nearly the same materials. The external portions of these nests were composed almost entirely of long, coarse strips of bark loosely Interwoven with a few dry grasses and stems of plants. Within It Is a more elaborately interwoven structure of finer dry grasses and mosses.

These are softly and warmly lined with hair and fur of smafl animals.

E. A. Preble (1908) reported a nest found near Fort Resolution that “was placed among thick grass on a sloping bank, and was composed outwardly of grass and Equise turn stems, with a layer of finer grass and with an inner lining of hair.”

Several nests have been reported from points farther south as being of this warbler, but these are probably all referable to the Rocky Mountain subspecies Tiermivora celata ores tera.

Eggs: The orange-crowned warbler lays from 4 to 6 eggs to a set, probably most often 5. Dr. Brandt (1943) describes his Alaska eggs as follows: “The egg is short ovate in outline, the surface moderately glossy, and the shell delicate. The ground color is white and is prominent because the markings obscure but one-fifth of its area. These spots are very small, and are peppered over the broad end in an illdefined wreath, while over the smaller two-thirds the egg is almost immaculate. In color the markings range from hydrangea red to ocher red; and underlying these are a few weak spots of deep dull ï lavender.” Probably a series of the eggs would show all the variations shown in eggs of the other races. The measurements of 50 eggs, including those of the Rocky Mountain race, average 16.2 by 12.7 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 18.3 by 13.2, 17.0 by 14.2, and 14.7 by 12.2 millimeters (Harris).

Plumages: Dr. Dwight (1900) describes the juvenal plumage as “above, brownish olive-green. Wings and tail olive-brown, broadly edged with bright olive-green, the median and greater coverts tipped with buff. Below, greenish buff paler and yellower on abdomen and crissum. Lores and auriculars grayish buff.”

The first winter plumage is acquired by a postjuvenal molt that involves the contour plumage and the wing coverts but not the rest of the wings or the tail. The sexes are alike in the juvenal plumage and much alike in all plumages, except that the female is always duller; in her first winter plumage the orange crown is lacking, and it is more or less suppressed and sometimes wholly lacking in subsequent plumages. Dr. Dwight (1900) describes the young male in first winter plumage as “above, bright olive-green, mostly concealed on the pileum and nape with pale mouse-gray edgings that blend into the green. The crown brownish orange concealed by greenish feather tips. Wing coverts broadly edged with dull olive-green, sometimes the greater coverts with faint whitish tips. Below, pale olive-yellow, grayish on the chin and sides of neck with very indistinct olive-gray streaking.

A dusky anteorbital spot. Lores, orbital ring and indistinct superciliary stripe mouse-gray.”

The first nuptial plumage is acquired by a partial prenuptial molt, “which involves chiefly the anterior part of the head and the chin. A richer, half concealed, orange crown patch is acquired; the lores and adjacent parts become grayer, the anteorbital spot darker. Wear makes birds greener above and slightly yellower below. Young and old become practically indistinguishable.”

Subsequent molts consist of a complete postnuptial molt in summer and a partial prenuptial molt in early spring, as described above. The adult winter plumage “differs chiefly from first winter dress in possessing a larger, more distinct crown patch,” in the male, and more or less of it in the female. “The color below is uniform and paler.”

Food: Nothing seems to be known about the summer food of the orange-crowned warbler, but it probably does not differ greatly from that of the lut~scent warbler, whose food has been more thoroughly studied. In winter, it probably eats a fair proportion of berries and other fruits, especially when it spends the winter somewhat farther north than insects are to be found in abundance. It has also been known to come to a feeding station and eat suet, peanut butter, and doughnuts. In summer, it is probably almost wholly insectivorous. I can find no evidence that it does any damage to grapes or other cultivated fruits on its fall migration.

Voice: Ernest Thompson Seton (1891) says of an orange-crowned warbler that he shot in Manitoba on May 12, 1883: “It was flitting about with great activity among the poplar catkins, and, from time to time, uttering a loud song like ‘cldp-e ckip-e c4ip-e chip-e cAip-e.’ On May 14 I shot another Orange-crowned Warbler. Its song is much like that of the Chipping Sparrow, but more musical and in a higher key. The bird is extremely restless and lively, moving about continually among the topmost twigs of the trees and uttering its little ditty about once in every half minute.”

Dr. Lynds Jones wrote to Dr. Chapman (1907): “The song is full and strong, not very high pitched, and ends abruptly on a rising scale. My note book renders it cliee chee chee chw’ yAw’. The first three syllables rapidly uttered, the last two more slowly. One heard late in the season sang more nearly like Mr. Thompson’s description: ckip-e, ekip-e, ckip-e, ckip-e, ckip-e, but with the first vowel changed to e, thus eliminating what would appear to be a marked similarity to the song of Chippy. Even in this song the ending is retained.”

Francis H. Allen tells me that this warbler “has a chip note suggesting that of the tree sparrow but sharper.”

Field marks: The orange-crowned warbler is a plain bird, with practically no white markings in wings or tail, clad in dusky olive green, paler below, the underparts sometimes obscurely streaked with olive-gray. The brownish orange crown patch is usually not conspicuous, except in worn summer plumage, and lacking in young birds and some females.

Fall: Orange-crowned warblers begin to leave northern Alaska in August. Dr. Nelson (1887) says that it is rare about St. Michael after the middle of the month, his latest date being August 24. The birds obtained at that season were mainly young of the year. “In fall this species frequents the vicinity of dwellings and native villages, where it searches the crevices of the fences and log houses for insects.”

The southeastward migration through central Canada and the United States seems to be leisurely and quite prolonged, mainly in September and early October, but often continuing into November. In Massachusetts, there are numerous late fall records and some winter records. Horace W. Wright (1917) has published an extensive paper on this subject and has collected the following Massachusetts records: “Mr. Brewster’s eleven records lie within the period of autunm from September 23 to November 28. There are three for September, namely, the 23rd and the 30th twice; none for October; and eight for November, namely, 7th, 9th, 10th, 17th, 2Oth: 2lst, 23rd: 24th, 25th, and 28th. On two occasions two birds were present, November 9 and 28. My own records run later. The earliest is November 5, and the latest is January 23. They are November 5, 18, 20, 22, 28, 29, January 10, 19, 23.” As Mr. Wright’s records cover a period of 8 years ending with January 1916, they indicate that the orange-crowned warbler is not such a rare straggler in Massachusetts as is generally supposed, and may be looked for almost any year in late fall, or even winter. Mr. Forbush (1929) says of its occurrence there:

This warbler may be found almost anywhere in New England during the fall migration wherever there are trees and shrubbery. In my experience the bird has been either in the trees or in the tops of rather tall shrubs and never very high, but like other members of the genus, though it nests on the ground It is said to spend considerable time In the upper parts of trees. It seems fond of the edges of woodlands near water, but it also frequents open woods, orchards, fruit gardens and shade trees, where amid the foliage it is very seldom noticed by the ordinary observer. Wben approached it divides Its attention between the observer and its insect prey, which it hunts assiduously in the manner of others of the genus. This warbler may be seen rarely in small companies, but more often singly or in company with a small group of warblers of other species.

Dr. Winsor M. Tyler contributes the following: “The orangecrowned warbler is a rare bird in New England, but we may look for it with some hope of success in the very late autumn, through November and even into December, during the soft, calm days of Indian Summer. As we walk along over the dead leaves, wet from last night’s frost, watching for the bird in the shrubs by the roadside and in neglected pastures, almost the only sound is the ticking of the falling leaves as they hit against the branches; and mistiness is all about us. Several seasons may pass before we hear its sharp chip, which stands out clearly from the gentle voice of the late-lingering myrtle warblers, and see it flitting all alone among the twigs, or on the ground: a lonely, dark, obscure little bird, darker and more deliberate than the kinglets. It is strange that a Vermivo’ra should linger here with winter so near at hand, but indeed there is evidence which leads us to believe that a few of these warblers may attempt to spend the winter in the southern part of this region, and should any one of them withstand the cold season, it may furnish, when it moves northwards towards its breeding ground, one of the exceedingly rare instances of the occurrence of the bird on the northern Atlantic coast in spring.”

Winter: The principal winter home of the orange-crowned warbler seems to be in the southern Atlantic and Gulf States. Of its occurrence in coastal South Carolina, Arthur T. Wayne (1910) writes:

My earliest date for Its arrival is October 30, 1897, but it is never abundant until the middle of November, remaining until the second week in April. It Is capable of enduring intense cold. I have seen numbers of these highly interesting birds near Charleston when the thermometer ranged as low as 80 above zero and it is always more active and hence oftener seen when the weather Is cold and cloudy.

The Orange-crowned Warbler Inhabits thickets of lavender and myrtle bushes as well as oak scrub, and its center of abundance is on the coast islands, the greater part of which is veritable jungle, In which it particularly deughts. Its only note while It sojourns here Is a chip or cheep which very closely resembles the note of the Field Sparrow in wInter.

Dr. Chapman (1907) says: “During the winter I have found the Orange-crowned Warbler a not uncommon inhabitant of the live-oaks in middle Florida where its sharp chip soon becomes recognizable. In Mississippi, at this season, Allison (MS.) says that ‘its favorite haunts are usually wooded yards or parks, where the evergreen live oak and magnolia can be found; I have seen it most commonly among the small trees on the border of rich mixed woods, above an undergrowth of switch cane. Coniferous trees it seems not to care for, though I have seen it in the cypress swamps.'”

DISTRIBUTION
Range: From Alaska and northern Canada to Guatemala.

Breeding range: The orange-crowned warbler breeds north to northcentral Alaska (Kobuk River and Fort Yukon; a specimen has been collected near Point Barrow); northern and western Mackenzie (Fort McPherson, Fort Anderson, Lake Hardisty, and Hill Island Lake); northern Saskatchewan (near Sand Point, Lake Athabaska); northeastern Manitoba (Churchill and York Factory) ; and casually to northwestern Quebec (Richmond Gulf). East to eastern and southern Manitoba (York Factory, Winnipeg, and Aweme); southwestern Saskatchewan (East End and the Cypress Hills); southeastern Alberta (Medicine Hat); western Montana (Great Falls, Belt, and Bozeman); northwestern and southeastern Wyoming (Yellowstone Park and Laramie); central Colorado (Denver, Colorado Springs, Wet Mountains, and Fort Garland) ; central New Mexico (Taos Mountains and Willis); and southwestern Texas (Guadalupe Mountains). South to southwestern Texas (Guadalupe Mountains); south-central New Mexico (Capitan Mountains); southeastern and northwestern Arizona (Tucson, Santa Catalina Mountains, and north rim of the Grand Canyon) ; southern Nevada (St. Thomas); and southern California (Panamint Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains, San Jacinto Mountains, Coronado Beach, and San Clemente Island). West to the Pacific coast of California (San Clemente and Santa Rosa Islands, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and Eureka); Oregon (Coos Bay and Tillamook); Washington (Cape Disappointment, Stevens Prairie, and Neah Bay); British Columbia (Nootka Sound and the Queen Charlotte Islands); and Alaska (Sitka, Yakutat, Nushegak, Igiak Bay, St. Michael, and the Kobuk River).

The orange-crowned warbler has been recorded in migration in southern Quebec as far east as Metamek and may occasionally breed. There is a single breeding record for Minnesota at Cambridge.

Winter range: The orange-crowned warbler winters north to northwestern Washington (Seattle); central California (Marysville, Bigtrees, Atwater, and Victorville); southern Nevada (near Searchlight) ; central and southeastern Arizona (Fort Verde, Phoenix, and Tucson) ; southern Texas (El Paso, Fort Clark, and Boerne) ; Louisiana (Monroe) ; rarely Tennessee (Memphis) ; central Georgia (Macon and Augusta) ; and southern South Carolina (Charleston). It has also occurred occasionally in winter as far north as Madison, Wis.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Canandaigua, N. Y.; and Boston, Mass. East to South Carolina (Charleston); Georgia (Savannah) ; and Florida (Jacksonville, Coconut Grove, and Royal Palm Hammock). South to southern Florida (Royal Palm Hammock); the Gulf coast of Florida (Ozona, Wakulla Beach, and Pensacola); Mississippi (Biloxi); Louisiana (New Orleans); Texas (Rockport, Corpus Christi, and Brownsville); Tamaulipas (Altamira); Veracruz (Orizaba); and Guatemala (Chimny and Tecp&n). West to western Guatemala (Tecp~n and Nenton); Guerrero (Chilpancingo and Coyuca); Colima (Manzillo); Jalisco (Mazatl~n); Baja California (Cape San Lucas and Santa Margarita Island); the Pacific coast of California (San Clemente and Santa Cruz Islands, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and Eureka); western Oregon (Eugene); and northwestern Washington (Tacoma and Seattle).

The above ranges apply to the species as a whole, of which four subspecies or geographic races are recognized: the eastern orangecrowned warbler (V. c. celata) breeds from northern Alaska, northern Mackenzie and northern Manitoba south to central Alaska, northern Alberta, and Saskatchewan to southern Manitoba; the Rocky Mountain orange-crowned warbler (V. e. orestera) breeds from northern British Columbia, central Alberta, and southwestern Saskatchewan southward east of the Cascades and Sierra Nevadas; the lutescent orange-crowned warbler (V. c. lutescens) breeds in the Pacific coast region from Cook Inlet, Alaska, south to southern California and eastward in California to the west slope of the Sierra Nevadas; the dusky orange-crowned warbler (V. c. sordida) is resident on the southern coastal islands of California and locally on the adjacent mainland.

Migration: The orange-crowned warbler is of rare occurrence in the northeastern United States where it is reported more often in fall than in spring.

Early dates of spring arrival are: Pennsylvania: Harrisburg, April 21. New York: Rochester, April 27. Tennessee: Memphis, April 5. Kentucky: Bowliiig Green, April 23. Ohio: Oberlin, April 14. Michigan: Ann Arbor, April 26. Ontario: Queensborough, April 26. Missouri: Columbia, April 20. Iowa: Sioux City, April 24. Wisconsin: Madison, April 19. Minnesota: Red Wing, April 19. Kansas: Lake Quivira, April 18. Nebraska: Fairbury, April 16. South Dakota: Arlington, April 22. North Dakota: Fargo, April 22. Manitoba: Winnipeg, April 25. Saskatchewan: East End, May 2. Mackenzie: Simpson, May 21. New Mexico: Carlisle, April 28. Colorado: Colorado Springs, April 27. Wyoming: Laramie, April 21. Montana: Fortine, April 28. Alberta: Glenevis, April 28. Oregon: Portland, March 26. Washington: Bellingham, March 2. British Columbia: Courtney, March 24. Yukon: Carcross, April 26. Alaska: Ketchikan, April 26; Tanana Crossing, May 18.

Late dates of spring departure of migrants are: Florida: Pensacola, April 20. Georgia: Atlanta, April29. South Carolina: Aiken, May 3. North Carolina: Hendersonville, May 9. West Virginia: Wheeling, May 12. New York: Canandaigua, May 27. Louisiana: New Orleans, April 3. Mississippi: Biloxi, April 21. Tennessee: Knoxville, April 25. Ohio: Austinburg, May 30. Ontario-Ottawa, May 28. Missouri: St. Louis, May 8. Iowa: Des Moines, June 6. Wisconsin: Racine, May 24. Michigan: Sault Ste. Marie, June 3. Minnesota: Rochester, May 28. Texas: Lytle, May 19. Oklahoma: Copan, May 2. Kansas: Onaga, May 22. Nebraska: Neligh, May 13. South Dakota: Faulkton, June 1. North Dakota: Fargo, June 6.

Late dates of fall departure are: Alaska: Craig, September 24. British Columbia: Atlin, September 9; Okanagan Landing, October 23. Washington: Semiahmoo, October 8. Oregon: Prospect, October 8. Alberta: Glenevis, October 5. Montana: Fort Keogh, September 22. Wyoming: Laramie, October 25. Utah: St. George, October 12. New Mexico: Gallinas Mountains, October 9. Saskatchewan: East End, September 16. Manitoba: Aweme, October 14. North Dakota: Fargo, October 19. South Dakota: Aberdeen, October 14. Nebraska: Hastings, October 8. Kansas: Wichita, November 2. Oklahoma: Norman, October 19. Minnesota: Minneapolis, October 20. Wisconsin: Milwaukee, October 26. Iowa: Giard, October 19. Ontario: Kingston, October 6. Michigan: Ann Arbor, November 1. Ohio: Toledo, October 27. Illinois: La Grange, October 28. Tennessee: Dover, October 26. Massachusetts: Lynn, November 30. New York: Rochester, October 9. Pennsylvania: Harrisburg, November 19 (bird was banded).

Early dates of fall arrival are: North Dakota: Ryder, August 18. South Dakota: Faulkton, August 23. Nebraska: Hastings, September 16. Texas: Lytle, August 29. Minnesota: Lanesboro, August 3. Wisconsin: New London, August 24. Iowa: National, August 28. Michigan: Blaney, August 19. Illinois: Chicago, August 28. Ontario-Ottawa, September 7. Ohio-Columbus, September 9. Tennessee: Clarksville, October 16. Arkansas: Hot Springs, September 11. Louisiana: New Iberia, November 19. Mississippi: Saucier, October 12. Massachusetts: Concord, October 2. Pennsylvania: Erie, September 15. West Virginia: Bethany, October 20. Georgia: Athens, October 12. South Carolina: Frogmore, September 20. Florida: Key West, October 5.

Banding: Two returns of banded orange-crowned warblers seem worth recording. One banded at Mellette, S. Dak., on September 21, 1939, was found, probably dead, on December 13, 1940 at Webster, Wis. Another banded at Eagle Rock, Calif., on April 3, 1940, was found dead, on June 21, 1940 at Wards Cove, Alaska~ Casual record : An immature orange-crowned warbler was collected October 14, 1906, at Lichtenfels, Greenland.

Egg dates: Alaska: 10 records, June 8 to July 2.

California: 71 records, April 3 to June 24; 36 records, April 20 to May 12, indicating the height of the season.

Washington: 17 records, April 25 to June 25; 9 records, May 13 to 24.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER
VERMIVORA CELATA ORESTERA Oberholser
HABITS

Although recognized and described by Dr. Harry C. Oberholser (1905) over 45 years ago, this well-marked subspecies was not accepted by the Committee for addition to the A. 0. U. Check-List until comparatively recently.

It is described as “similar to Vermivora celata celata, but larger and much more yellowish, both above and below.” Dr. Oberholser (1905) adds the following remarks: “This new form has usually been included with V. celata celata, but breeding specimens recently obtained, principally from New Mexico and British Columbia, indicate its much closer relationship, in all respects except size, with the west coast forms. From Vermivora celata lutescen.s it may, however, readily be distinguished by its duller, less yellowish color, both above and below, and by its much greater size.”

He gives its geographical range as: “Mountains of New Mexico, Arizona, and southeastern California to British Columbia; in migration to Minnesota and Pennsylvania, south to Texas, and Mexico to Lcwer California, Michoacan, Guerrero, and Puebla.”

Nesting: Stanley G. Jewett (1934) reports a nest within the range of this race, of which he writes:

On June 18, 1934, a nest of this species was found at 6,000 feet altitude on Hart Mountain, Lake County, Oregon. The location was a rather dense mixed grove of aspen, alder, willow, and yellow pine. The female was on the nest, which was placed on the ground well under a small leaning wil]ow stump, about five inches in diameter, that had been cut off about a foot above the ground, leaving the stump kaning at an angle of about 45 degrees. Weeds had grown over the stump forming a loose canopy of vegetation which protected the nest and sitting bird from being easily seen. The nest was composed of coarse dry strIps of willow bark, lined with porcupine hairs. It measured, inside, 50 mm. in width and 83 mm. in depth.

A nest and four eggs of this species, probably orestera, is in the Thayer collection in Cambridge; it was collected at Banif, Alberta, on June 9, 1902. The nest was said to be “in root of a shrub, a few inches above the ground”. It is compactly made of the finest larch twigs, yellow birch bark, fine shreds of coarse weed stems, other fine plant fibers and fine grasses, fine strips of inner bark, and a little plant down; it is lined with finer pieces of the same materials and some black and white hairs. The outside diameter is about 3 inches, and the height about 2 inches; inside, it measures about 18A inches in diameter and 1’/~ inches in depth. A set of three eggs in my collection was taken May 14, 1909, near Glacier National Park, Mont.; the nest was on the ground, concealed by grass on a hillside. The measurements of the eggs of this race, which are indistinguishable from those of other races of the species, are included in those of the type race.

LUTESCENT ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER
VERMIVORA CELATA LUTESCENS (Ridgway)
HABITS

This brightly colored race of the orange-crowned warbler group is widely distributed during the breeding season along the Pacific coast regions from southern Alaska to southern California and migrates in the fall southward to Baja California, western Mexico, and Guatemala. It differs from typical celata in being more brightly olive-green above and distinctly yellow below; in strong light it seems to be a yellow rather than an olive bird.

Dr. Walter K. Fisher sent the following sketch of it in its California haunts to Dr. Chapman (1907)

Chaparral hillsides and brushy open woods are the favorite haunts of the Lutescent Warbler. Its nest Is built on or near the ground, usually In a bramble tangle or under a rooty bank, and the bird itself hunts near the ground, flitting here and there through the miniature jungle of wild lilacs, baccharis and hazel bushes. Its dull greenish color harmonizes with the dusty summer foliage of our California chaparral, and with the fallen leaves and tangle of stems that constitute its normal background. It Impresses one chiefly by its lack of any distinctive markings, and the young of the year, particularly, approach that tint which has been facetiously called “museum color.”

Ordinarily the crown-patch is invisible as the little fellow fidgets among the undergrowth, but at a distance of 3 feet Mr. W. L. Finley was able to distinguish it when the bird ruffled its feathers in alarm.

In May, 1911, while I was waiting in Seattle, Wash., to take ship to the Aleutian Islands with B. H. Beck and Dr. Alexander Wetmore, we were shown by Samuel F. Rathbun the haunts of the lutescent orange-crowned warbler around Seattle. He says that it is one of the more common warblers of the region and is widely distributed. It favors small deciduous growths in more or less open situations, with or without accompanying evergreens. “It is also partial to the edges of old clearings fringed with a deciduous growth.” He says that it is an early migrant, arriving early in April or sometimes in the latter part of March, and departing in September.

On Mount Rainier, according to Taylor and Shaw (1927), it was: fairly common in the Hudsonlan Zone (4,500 feet to 6,500 feet) ; occurs also, but more rarely, in the Canadian Zone between 3,500 and 4,500 feet. ï * * The lutescent warbler was commonly found in the mountain ash, huckleberry, azalea, and willow brush, principally in the open meadow country of the subalpine parka. Warm and sunny south-facing slopes were favorite places of resort, especially after a period of cold or fog. Occasionally the bird was found in patches of Sitka valerian; at other times In the lower branches of alpine firs. His summer foraging seems for the most part to he done within 10 feet of the ground, though In the fall, when migrating, he apparently takes to the tree tops.

Nesting: On May 7, 1911, Samuel F. Rathbun took us over to Mercer Island in Lake Washington. At that time, this interesting Island was heavily forested in some places with a virgin growth of tall firs, in which we saw the sooty grouse and heard it hooting, later finding its nest in an open clearing. ‘While walking through another open space among some scattered groups of small fir trees, Mr. Beck flushed a lutescent warbler from her nest in a hummock covered with the tangled fronds of dead brakes (Pte’ridium aquilinum). The nest ‘~ as so well concealed in the mass of dead ferns that we had difficulty in finding it. It was made of dead grasses and leaves, deeply imbedded in the moss of the hummock, and was lined with finer grasses and hairs. It held four fresh eggs. Three days later, Dr. Wetmore took a set of five fresh eggs at Redmond. This nest was located beside a woodland path at the edge of a swamp; it was well hidden on the ground, under a stick that was leaning against a log. It was made of similar materials and was lined with white horsehair.

Mr. Rathbun mentions three nests (MS.), found in that same vicinity; one was well hidden under some fallen dead brakes; and the other two were beautifully concealed in the centers of small huckleberry bushes.

William L. Finley (1904b) records six Oregon nests. The first “was tucked up under some dry ferns in the bank of a little hollow where a tree had been uprooted. * * * The second nest was on a hillside under a fir tree, placed on the ground in a tangle of grass and briar.” Another was “in a sloping bank just beside a woodland path. A fourth nest was tucked under the overhanging grasses and leaves in an old railroad cut.” He found two nests in bushes above ground. He saw a female carrying “food into the thick foliage of an arrowwood bush. A cluster of twigs often sprouts out near the upper end of the branch and here, in the fall, the leaves collect in a thick bunch. In one of these bunches, 3 feet from the ground, the warbler had tunneled out the dry leaves and snugly fitted in her nest making a dark and well-protected home.” He found another nest 2 feet up in a bush, within a few yards of the ocean beach.

Henry W. Carriger, of Sonoma, Calif., (1899) mentions two more elevated nests of the lutescent warbler. He writes:

On May 31, 1897, I found a nest of the Lutescent Warbler placed three feet from the ground In a bunch of vines. * * * On May 3, 1899, * * * I flushed a bird from a nest In an oak tree, and was surprised to see it was a Lutescent Warbler. The nest was six feet from the ground and three feet from the trunk of the tree. A horizontal limb branched out from the tree and a small branch stuck up from it for about eight incbes, and over this was a great quantity of Spanish moss (Ramalina retiformis), which fell over the horizontal limb. The nest is quite bulky, composed of leaves, grass and hark strips, lined with hair and fine grass, and was partially supported by both limbs and the moss, which is all about it and which forms quite a cover f or the eggs.

Eggs: The lutescent warbler lays from 3 to 6 eggs to a set, probably most often 4. These are ovate or short ovate and are practically lusterless. The white or creamy white ground color is speckled, spotted or occasionally blotched with shades of reddish brown, such as “russet,” “NIars brown,” “chestnut,” and “auburn,” intermingled with underlying shades of “light brownish drab.” The markings are usually concentrated at the large end, but some eggs are speckled more or less evenly over the entire surface. Small scrawls of blackish brown may be found on some of the more heavily marked types. The measurements of 50 eggs average 16.2 by 12.6 millimeters: the eggs showing the four extremes measure 17.7 by 12.8, 16.8 by 13.5, 14.7 by 12.2, and 15.9 by 11.1 millimeters (Harris).

Young: We seem to have no information on incubation or on the care and development of the young.

Plumages: The molts and plumages are evidently similar to those of the orange-crowned warbler, though the lutescent is, of course, decidedly more yellow in all plumages.

Food: Prof. Beal (1907) examined the contents of the stomachs of 65 California specimens of this species.

Less than 9 percent of the food is vegetable matter, and is made up of 3 percent of fruit and rather more than 5 percent of various substances, such as leaf galls, seeds, and rubbish. Fruit was found in only a few stomachs, but the percentage in each was considerable; figs were the only variety Identified. [Of the 91 percent animal matter,] Hemiptera are the largest item and amount to over 25 percent, mostly leaf-bugs, leaf-hoppers, plant-lice, and scales. Plant-lice were found in only one stomach and scales in 5, of which 3 contained the black olive species. Beetles amount to about 19 percent of the food, and with the exception of a few Coccinellldae are of harmful families, among which are a number of weevils. * * * Caterpillars are eaten rather irregularly, though they aggregate 24 percent for the year. Stomachs collected in several months contained none, while in others they amounted to more than half of the food. * * * Hymenoptera amount nearly to 15 percent, and are mostly small wasps, though some ants are eaten.

Other items were flies, less than 1 percent, and spiders, 7 percent. W. L. MeAtee (1912) says that this is one of only two wood warblers known to prey upon codling moths. “The lutescent warbler shows a strong liking for the pupae, two taken in California in May having eaten 10 and 18 pupae, respectively.”

Behavior: Mrs. Wheelock (1904) writes thus of its feeding activities: “All day long he flits about through the oak trees, leaning away over the tips of the boughs to investigate a spray of leaves, or stretching up his pretty head to reach a blossom just above him; now clinging head downward underneath a spray, or hovering under the yellow tassels as a bee hovers beneath a flower.”

Voice: Samuel F. Rathbun (MS.) gives me his impression of the song of the lutescent warbler as follows: “Its song is a succession of trilling notes on a slightly rising then falling key, the latter more lightly given and faster. There is an apparent ease in this song that is suggestive of airiness, and, although simple in construction, it is pleasing to hear and further bears the stamp of distinctiveness.”

Fall: The fall migration is southward to southern California, western Mexico, and Guatemala. The movement is apparently leisurely and quite prolonged, for the earliest birds begin leaving western Washington in August and September, and Theed Pearse gives me two October dates for Vancouver Island, with his latest date November 1. Taylor and Shaw (1927) write of the fall movement on Mount Rainier as follows:

The post-nuptial scatter movement was in full swing by the middle of August. At this time the lutescent warbler was often found in the same flocks with Shufeldt juncos, western golden-crowned kinglets, or chestnut-backed chickadees. It is not unlikely that there is some good reason for this flocking, aside from the companionship Involved. The warbiers and the juncos, kinglets, or chickadees probably do not compete for food as would one warbler with another of the same species. The individual warbler, attached to a flock of kinglets, let us say, may be the more surely guided to available food. Then, too, differences in alertness of the two or more species concerned may afford greater protection to each than would be the case if they remained separate.

Robert Ridgway (1877) met with these warbiers in large numbers in Nevada:

In the fall, the thickets and lower shrubhery along the streams, particularly those of the lower caflons, would fairly swarm with them during the early portion of the mornings, as they busily sought their food, in company with various insectivorous birds, especially the Black-capped Green Warbler (Myio~Uoctea pIA8iZZus) and Swainson’s Vireo (Vireo8l/lvia awaineoni). At such times tbey uttered frequently their sharp note of chip. The brightly-colored specimens representing H. luteacen. were prevalent in the western depression of the Basin. but were not observed eastward of the upper portion of the Valley of the Humboldt, nor at any locality during the summer; and wherever found, were associated with individuals of the other form, which is the only one found breeding on the mountains. It Is therefore Inferred that all these individuals were migrants from the northern Pacific Coast region and the Sierra Nevada, while those of H. ceiata proper were from the higher portions of the more eastern mountains, or from farther northward In the Rocky Mountain ranges, full-fledged young birds being numerous in the high aspen woods of the Wabsatch Mountains in July and August

DUSKY ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER
VERMIVORA CELATA SORDIDA (Townsend)
HABITS

The subspecific characters of this warbler, as given by the original describer, C. H. Townsend (1890), are: “Adult male: Entire plumage decidedly darker than H. celata lute8cen8. Feet and bill larger; wings slightly shorter. There is an appearance of grayness about the upper plumage, owing to a leaden tinge on ends of feathers. Throat and under parts slightly streaked.”

The principal breeding range of the dusky warbler is on the Santa Barbara Islands off the coast of southern California, but it has also been known to breed in San Diego and probably breeds farther south in Baja California, and on the Todos Santos Islands, off that coast.

The dusky orange-crowned warbler was discovered by Dr. Townsend on San Clemente Island January 25, 1889, but it does not seem to be so common there as on some of the other islands. According to A. Brazier Howell (1917) it has been reported from all of the channel islands except Sab Nicholas, which is too barren for it; and its occurrence on Santa Barbara Island is doubtful, as this precipitous island is not suited for it. It is probably commonest on Santa Catalina Island, “in the darker canyons and on the wooded hillsides.”

J. Stuart Rowley writes to me: “I found that the weekend nearest the 15th of April was the ideal time to hunt nests of this warNers on Catalina Island, and after much hiking about this island I finally located a little ravine, only about a mile or so out of the own of Avalon, where these warblers nested abundantly, due to the little trickle of surface water in the bottom of the ravine. Since most of the ravines here are dry, this one was ‘made to order’ and I enjoyed the chance to find many nests in the short time allotted to me. Around the middle of April this little ravine fairly trilled with the songs of many males, who were constantly pursuing trespassing individuals out of their nesting territories, only to return and continue their melodic songs.”

Nesting: Of its nesting habits, J. Stuart Rowley continues: “I have found dusky warblers nesting in every conceivable sort of place, ranging from those placed on the ground in the grass to those placed 15 feet up in toyon trees. The usual nesting sits here seems to be in a small toyon bush, rather well concealed, but not over 2 to 3 feet from the ground; the nests are made of fibres and grasses and, although nicely cupped and lined, are rather bulky affairs externally for a warbler to build.” Howell (1917) writes:

The usual nesting site of tbe Lutescent Warbler is on the ground, but [have never heard of 8Ordida building in such a situation. On the smaller barren islands, such as the Coronados and Todos Santos (where it is common), they build in a bush or tangle of vines, a foot or so above the ground, and the nest is always mainly constructed of gray moss, where this is to be had, lined with a little fine grass. On the larger Islands, where there are good-sized trees, the site chosen may be a thicket of vines several feet nbove the bed of a stream, a small shrub, say four feet up, or perhaps an oak as much as fifteen feet above the ground. In such case the nest is quite substantially made of leaves, twigs, bark, rootlets, and often a little sheep wool. Three or four eggs constitute a set, and at least two broods of young are raised each year.

A most unusual nesting site for a dusky warbler is described by Clinton G. Abbott (1926). It was: a decorativ~e fern basket inside a small lath house adjoining the bome of Mrs. A. P. Johnson, Jr., at 2470 0 Street, San Diego. * ï * Her house is in one of the older residential sections of the city, known as Golden HilL The homes here are large and surrounded by more or less extensive grounds, but the whole aspect is distinctly urban, with streets everywhere paved. Broadway, with double trolley tracks, is only one block away. The lath house, sixteen by twenty-four feet in size, was filled with a luxuriant growth of cultivated plants. A rectangular path within was marked at its corners by fo~ir wire fern baskets suspended about four feet from the ground. In one of these werethe remains of the two previous years’ nests, and in the basket diagonally opposite was the inhabited nest, which contained three eggs. Although the eggs were manifestly not fresh, there was no bird about and they seemed cool to my touch. I waited about for fully ten minutes and was beginning to fear that disaster had overtaken the home, when I heard a iow, scolding note overhead. Then down from betwoon the slats hopped the dainty little warbler, and, with no concern whatsoever, she took her place upon the eggs, although I was standing in full view close by. [The nest was) cosily placed in the moss at the base of the ferns.

We soon discovered that not only was the bird practically fearless In the ordinary sense, but that she would even allow us to touch her without leaving her nest. She would permit us to raise her from her eggs with no greater protest than a pecking at the intruding finger. If she was not sitting sufficiently broadside for a good photograph, It was possible to arrange her the way we wanted her! Sometimes, If our familiarity was beyond her patience, she would merely hop among the foliage behind the nest, wait there for a few minutes, and then nestle back on her eggs.

Eggs: Three eggs seem to constitute the average set for the dusky warbler, with occasionally only two or as many as four. Mr. Rowley tells me that, out of at least two dozen nests examined, he found only two sets of four; one nest had only one newly hatched young, and two or three nests held two well-incubated eggs. The eggs are apparently indistinguishable from those of the mainland races. The measurements of 27 eggs average 17.0 by 13.2 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 18.5 by 13.5, 17.6 by 14.0, and 16.0 by 12.7 millimeters.

Winter: Many of the dusky warbiers, perhaps most of them, desert the islands in the fall when they become dry and uninviting, for the winter spreading widely on the mainland as far north as the San Francisco Bay region and inland to Merced County. Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1898) says: “This subspecies appears in the vicinity of Pasadena in the oak regions and along the arroyos in large numbers during August, and even by the middle of July. Remains in diminishing numbers through the winter; the latest specimen noted in the spring was secured by me, Feb. 29 (’96) .”