Townsend's warbler

Template:Short description Template:Speciesbox Townsend's warbler (Setophaga townsendi) is a small songbird of the New World warbler family.

Taxonomy

Townsend's warbler was formally described in 1837 by the American naturalist John Kirk Townsend under the binomial name Sylvia townsendi.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite journal</ref> The type locality is Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River in the state of Washington.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After the merger of the genera Dendroica and Setophaga,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Townsend's warbler is now placed in the genus Setophaga that was introduced by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1827.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=ioc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.<ref name=ioc/>

Description

Townsend's warbler has a yellow face with a black stripe across its cheeks extending into an ear patch, a thin pointed bill, two white wing bars, olive upperparts with black streaks on their backs and flanks, and a white belly.<ref name=":1" /> Adult males have a black cap, black throat and yellow lower breast; females have a dark cap and a yellow throat. Immature birds are similar to females with a dark green cap and cheeks.<ref name="Sibley" />

File:Townsend's Warbler (24573647458).jpg

Adult female showing lighter facial markings and yellow throat as opposed to the Male's black markings and black throat.

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Life history

File:Dendroica townsendi -San Francisco, California, USA-8.jpg

In California, USA

Their breeding habitats are coniferous forests with large trees on the northwestern coast of North America.<ref name=":1" /> Their nests are shallow cups built with grass and lined with moss.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> These nests are usually placed atop a branch in a conifer. The female lays 4 to 5 brown-speckled white eggs.<ref name=":0" />

This bird is closely related to the hermit warbler, and the two species interbreed where their ranges overlap.<ref name=Sibley />

Birds from Haida Gwaii migrate short distances further south on the Pacific coast. Other birds winter in Mexico, Central America, and the south-western United States.<ref name=":1" />

They forage actively in the higher branches, often gleaning insects from foliage and sometimes hovering or catching insects in flight.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> They mainly eat insects and spiders and seeds. Outside of the nesting season, these birds forage in mixed flocks. In winter, they also eat berries and plant nectar,<ref name=":0" /> and honeydew directly from the anus of scale insects.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The song of the male bird is a buzzed zee-zee-zee-bzz-zee or weazy weazy weazy weazy twea,<ref name=":0" /> somewhat similar to that of its eastern relative, the black-throated green warbler.<ref name="Sibley" /> The call is a sharp tup.

This bird was named after the American ornithologist, John Kirk Townsend.<ref name=":2" /> Although Townsend is also credited with first describing this bird, he used a name chosen by Thomas Nuttall, who was travelling with him, and so sidestepped the convention against naming a species after oneself.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref>

External links

• Template:InternetBirdCollection
• Townsend's warbler species account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Townsend's warbler - Dendroica townsendi - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
• Template:VIREO
• Template:NeotropicalBirds