Read Ebook: Life Histories of North American Wood Warblers Part 1 (of 2) by Bent Arthur Cleveland Tyler Winsor Marrett Contributor

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 1345 lines and 182314 words, and 27 pages

Page

Introduction ix

Order PASSERIFORMES 1

Family Parulidae: Wood warblers 1

INTRODUCTION

This is the nineteenth in a series of bulletins of the United States National Museum on the life histories of North American birds. Previous numbers have been issued as follows:

The paragraphs on distribution for the Colima and Kirtland's warblers were supplied by Dr. Josselyn Van Tyne with his contributions on these species.

All other data on distribution and migration were contributed by the Fish and Wildlife Service under the supervision of Frederick C. Lincoln.

The same general plan has been followed as explained in previous bulletins, and the same sources of information have been used. It does not seem necessary to explain the plan again here. The nomenclature of the Check-List of North American Birds , with its supplements, of the American Ornithologists' Union, has been followed. Forms not recognized in this list have not been included.

As the demand for these Bulletins is much greater than the supply, the names of those who have not contributed to the work during recent years will be dropped from the author's mailing list.

Dr. Winsor M. Tyler has again read and indexed for this volume a large part of the current literature on North American birds and has contributed four complete life histories. Dr. Alfred O. Gross has written stories on the yellow-throats and has contributed three other complete life histories. Edward von S. Dingle, Alexander Sprunt, Jr., and Dr. Josselyn Van Tyne have contributed two complete life histories each.

INTRODUCTION

William George F. Harris has increased his valuable contribution to the work by producing the entire paragraphs on eggs, including descriptions of the eggs in their exact colors, assembling and averaging the measurements, and collecting and arranging the egg dates, as they appear under Distribution; the preparation of this last item alone required the handling of over 5,600 records.

Clarence F. Smith has furnished references to food habits of all the species of wood warblers. Aretas A. Saunders has contributed full and accurate descriptions of the songs and call notes of all the species with which he is familiar, based on his extensive musical records. Dr. Alexander F. Skutch has sent us full accounts of all the North American wood warblers that migrate through or spend the winter in Central America, with dates of arrival and departure. James Lee Peters has furnished descriptions of molts and plumages of several species and has copied several original descriptions of subspecies from publications that were not available to the author.

Eggs were measured for this volume by American Museum of Natural History , California Academy of Sciences , Colorado Museum of Natural History , C. E. Doe, W. E. Griffee, W. C. Hanna, E. N. Harrison, H. L. Heaton, A. D. Henderson, Museum of Comparative Zoology , and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology .

The manuscript for this Bulletin was written in 1945; only important information could be added. If the reader fails to find in these pages anything that he knows about the birds, he can only blame himself for failing to send the information to--

LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WOOD WARBLERS

Order PASSERIFORMES: Family PARULIDAE

GENERAL REMARKS ON THE FAMILY PARULIDAE

CONTRIBUTED BY WINSOR MARRETT TYLER

The family of wood warblers, Parulidae, is the second largest family of North American birds, surpassed only in number of species by the family Fringillidae. The wood warblers occur only in the Western Hemisphere; they are distinct from the Old World warblers, Sylviidae, although the two families play a similar r?le in nature's economy.

The wood warblers are largely nocturnal migrants, whose long journeys in the dark of night over sea and lake and along the coast expose them to many perils, one being the lighthouses they strike with frequently fatal results. Their notes are seldom heard from the night sky during their spring migration, but on many a calm, quiet night in August and September, as they fly overhead, their sharp, sibilant, staccato notes punctuate the rhythmic beat of the tree-crickets singing in the shrubbery and stand out clearly among the soft, whistled calls of the migrating thrushes.

The length of migration varies greatly; the pine warbler withdraws in winter only a short distance from the southern limit of its breeding range, whereas the most northerly breeding black-polls migrate from Alaska to the Tropics. In spring many species migrate at nearly the same time, apparently advancing northward in intermittent waves of great numbers during favorable nights. Flocks made up of sometimes a dozen species together flash about in their bright plumage during the week or two at the height of the migration and furnish days of great excitement to ornithologists. Their return in late summer and autumn is more leisurely and regular; in loose flocks they drift slowly by for several weeks, their southward passage evident even in daytime. The flocking begins early, soon after nesting is over, and to the north is apparent early in July, if closely watched for, even before the leaves begin to wither. The mixed fall flocks, with adults in winter plumage and young birds in duller colors, present many fascinating problems in identification as the birds move quietly along.

In my paper published in 1911, after stating the different hypotheses proposed in order to explain the relations existing among the Golden-winged, Blue-winged, Brewster's, and Lawrence's Warblers I added, half in jest, that the only hypothesis left for a new-comer in the field was this: that the Golden-winged and the Blue-winged Warblers themselves were merely two forms of one species. Curiously enough, not long after this I found that this very opinion had been expressed, and in a most unexpected quarter: in a letter dated Edinburgh, Sept. 15, 1835, Audubon wrote to Bachman that he suspected the golden-winged warbler and the blue-winged warbler were one species! That Audubon at that early date, ignorant of the existence of Brewster's and Lawrence's warblers, and but superficially acquainted with the golden-wing, should suspect that two birds so diverse as the blue-wing and the golden-wing were one species seemed incomprehensible, and in the light of what we now know about these birds, his surmise seemed to presuppose an almost superhuman faculty of prevision.

As a possible explanation of Audubon's letter I have only this to offer: in the winter of 1876-77 Dr. Spencer Trotter discovered in the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia a specimen of Brewster's warbler without a label, the third specimen known up to that time; on the bottom of the stand was written in the autograph of John Cassin, "J. C., 20 October, 1862," and also a badly blurred legend "Not from Bell." An appeal to J. G. Bell elicited the response that he remembered shooting a peculiar warbler in Rockland Co., N. Y., about the year 1832--a warbler something like a golden-wing, but lacking, although in high plumage, the black throat of that species; a great many years afterward, he sold this specimen in Philadelphia but knew nothing of its ultimate fate. Dr. Trotter justly inferred that the Philadelphia Academy specimen was in all probability the very bird shot by Bell.

Now as Audubon was intimately associated with Bell, is it not possible that he had examined this example of Brewster's warbler? In that case, seeing that this bird's characters were in part those of the blue-wing, in part those of the golden-wing, he may have inferred the interbreeding of these two birds, and so their identity. If this be not the explanation of the passage in Audubon's letter to Bachman I have no other to suggest.

When Audubon came to publish his account of the Golden-winged Warbler in 1839 he said not a word about its connection with the Blue-winged Warbler.

Two more Sutton's warblers have been carefully observed in the field: one at the point where the type was collected on May 21, 1942, by Maurice Brooks and Bayard H. Christy ; the second about 18 miles to the westward on June 21, 1944, by George H. Breiding and Lawrence E. Hicks . Another aberrant warbler has been described by Stanley G. Jewett , who examined four specimens which show a curious intermingling of the plumage characters of the hermit and Townsend warblers.

MNIOTILTA VARIA

BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER

CONTRIBUTED BY WINSOR MARRETT TYLER

PLATES 1-3

HABITS

The black-and-white warbler is one of the earliest spring warblers to reach its breeding-ground in the Transition Zone. Most of the other members of this family arrive in or pass through the region in mid-May or somewhat later, according to the season, when the oaks are in bloom and the opening flowers attract swarms of insects.

The black-and-white warbler, however, owing to its peculiar habit of feeding on the trunks and the large limbs of the trees, does not have to wait for the bounty supplied by the oaks but finds its special feeding-ground well stocked with food long before the oaks blossom or their leaves unfold. It comes with the yellow palm warbler late in April, when many of the trees are nearly bare, and not long after the pine warbler.

Milton B. Trautman , speaking of the spring migration at Buckeye Lake, Ohio, shows that the male birds are preponderant in the earliest flights. He says: "The first spring arrivals, chiefly males, were noted between April 16 and 30, and between May 1 and 5, 2 to 15 birds, mostly males, could be daily noted. The peak of migration usually lasted from May 6 to May 18, and then from 3 to 42 individuals, consisting of a few old males and the remainder females and young males, were daily observed. On May 18 or shortly thereafter a decided lessening in numbers occurred, and by May 23 all except an occasional straggler had left."

Henry Mousley , writing of Hatley, Quebec, mentions moss as a component part of the nest, and says of three nests that they were all "heavily lined with long black and white horse hairs," a peculiarity of coloration mentioned in one of Mr. Bent's nests. Thomas D. Burleigh speaks of a nest in Pennsylvania "built of dead leaves and rhododendron berry stems, lined with fine black rootlets and a few white hairs." H. H. Brimley describes an exceptional nest. He says: "There was no particular departure from normal in its construction except for the fact that it was lined with a mixture of fine rootlets and very fine copper wire, such as is used in telephone cables. Fragments of such cable, discarded by repair men, were found nearby where a telephone line ran through the woods."

F. A. E. Starr writes to A. C. Bent from Toronto, Ontario, that all the nests he has found have been in broken-off stumps in low woods. "The cavity in the top of the stump," he says, "is filled with old leaves, and the nest proper is made chiefly of strips of bark with grass and fiber." Guy H. Briggs reports a nest "in a decayed hemlock stump, fifteen inches from the ground." In such cases, of course, while the nest is well above the ground level, it rests on a firm foundation.

Audubon says: "In Louisiana, its nest is usually placed in some small hole in a tree," but he quotes a letter to him from Dr. T. M. Brewer on the subject, thus: "This bird, which you speak of as breeding in the hollows of trees, with us always builds its nest on the ground. I say always, because I never knew it to lay anywhere else. I have by me a nest brought to me by Mr. Appleton from Batternits, New York, which was found in the drain of the house in which he resided."

Minot speaks of two nests found near Boston, Mass., well above the ground. He says: "The first was in a pine grove, in the cavity of a tree rent by lightning, and about five feet from the ground, and the other on the top of a low birch stump, which stood in a grove of white oaks."

Gordon Boit Wellman states: "Toward the last of the incubation time one of the birds was constantly on the nest. I found the male sitting usually at about dusk, but I think the female sat on the eggs over night."

Unlike the young of some of the other warblers which remain near the ground for many days, the young black-and-white warblers shortly ascend to the branches of trees where they are fed by the old birds.

I find no definite record of the length of the incubation period, but in a nest I watched in 1914 it was close to 10 days. Burns gives the period of nestling life as 8 to 12 days.

Forbush adds the following observation: "The food of this bird consists mostly of the enemies of trees, such as plant-lice, scale-lice, caterpillars, both hairy and hairless, among them such destructive enemies of orchard, shade and forest trees as the canker-worm and the gipsy, brown-tail, tent and forest tent caterpillars. Wood-boring and bark-boring insects, click beetles, curculios and many other winged insects are taken. Sometimes when the quick-moving insects escape its sharp bill, it pursues them on the wing but most of its attention is devoted to those on the trees."

H. H. Tuttle , speaking of the male parent feeding the young birds, says: "The fare which he provided was composed entirely of small green caterpillars, cut up into half-lengths."

We associate this warbler with dry, rocky hillsides where the ground is strewn with dead leaves, but the bird may breed also in the dry portions of shady, wooded swamps.

Albert R. Brand , in his mechanically recorded songs of warblers, placed the black-and-white's song as the fourth highest in pitch in his last of 16 species, the black-poll, blue-winged, and the Blackburnian being higher. He gives the approximate mean of the black and white as 6,900 and of the blackpool as 8,900.

Aretas A. Saunders says: "The pitch of the songs varies, according to my records, from B??? to E????, a range of three and a half tones more than an octave. A single song, however, does not vary more than three and a half tones."

Of the minor notes Andrew Allison says: "I know of no other warbler except the Chat that can produce so great a variety of sounds; and since nearly all of the notes resemble those of other warblers, this is a most confusing bird to deal with during the busy season of 'waves'."

Behind the house in Lexington, Mass., where I lived for years, there was a little hill, sparsely covered with locust trees, to the southward from my dooryard. This hill was a favorite resort for warblers in late summer. No warbler bred within a mile of the spot, except the summer yellowbird, to use the old name, yet soon after the first of July the black-and-white warblers began to assemble there. Not infrequently I have seen a single bird come to the hill, flying in from the north across Lexington Common, and join others there. The small company might remain for an hour or more, frequently singing as the birds fed in the locust trees.

Later in the season, as August advances, migration appears more evident. The birds now gather in larger numbers, sometimes as many as eight or ten; they pause in the locust trees for a shorter time before flying off; they are no longer in song; and the majority of the birds have white cheeks, most of them presumably young birds. Although they are almost silent as they climb about feeding, if you stand quietly in the midst of a company of four or five, now and then you may hear a faint note, and at once the note comes from all sides, each bird apparently reporting its whereabouts--a sound which calls to mind the south-bound migrants as they roam through the quiet autumn woods. Other warblers, unquestionably migrants, visit this hillside in August, notably the Tennessee, an early arrival who has already traveled a long way.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet