Golden-winged Warblers, Vermivora chrysoptera
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The Golden-winged Warbler, Vermivora chrysoptera, is a New World warbler, 11.6 cm long and weighing 8.5 g. It breeds in eastern North America in southeastern Canada and the eastern USA. Its range is extending northwards, but in the south it is being replaced by the very closely related Blue-winged Warbler, Vermivora pinus.
Life history
It is migratory, wintering in southern Central America. This is a very rare vagrant to western Europe, with a single record of a bird wintering in a supermarket car park in Maidstone, Kent in 1989.
The breeding male Golden-winged Warbler is unmistakable. It is gray above and whitish below. The crown and wing patches are yellow and the eye mask and throat are black, separated by white. Females are duller, with the black of the face pattern replaced by gray.
The breeding habitat is open scrubby areas. Golden-winged Warblers nest on the ground or low in a bush, laying 4-5 eggs in a cup nest.
These birds feed on insects, and spiders.
The song is a trilled bzzzz buzz buzz buzz. The call is a sharp chip.
This species forms two distinctive hybrids with Blue-winged Warbler where their ranges overlap in the Great Lakes and New England area. The commoner, genetically dominant Brewster's Warbler is gray above and whitish (male) or yellow (female) below. It has a black eyestripe and two white wingbars.
The rarer recessive Lawrence's Warbler has a male plumage which is green and yellow above and yellow below, with white wing bars and the same face pattern as male Golden-winged. The female is gray above and whitish below with two yellow wing bars and the same face pattern as female Golden-winged.
References
- BirdLife International (2004). Vermivora chrysoptera. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is near threatened
- New World Warblers by Curson, Quinn and Beadle, ISBN 0-7136-3932-6
External Links
- Golden-winged Warbler - Vermivora chrysoptera - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
- Golden-winged Warbler Species Account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Golden-winged Warbler Information - South Dakota Birds and Birding
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