BIRD SPECIES

Cape May Warbler

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Setophaga tigrina

The Cape May Warbler is a delicate, short-tailed warbler with a slender and distinctively decurved bill, unusual among warblers.

It is the only warbler with a tubular tongue adapted to feeding on nectar from flowers.

Both sexes measure about 4.7 - 5.1 inches in length, with a wingspan of 7.9 - 8.7 inches wingspan and weight of 10.2 - 15.2 grams.

Summer males are distinctive brightly colored, with chestnut ear-coverts, blackish crown, very large white wing patch and bright yellow neck sides.

They have a combination of greenish upperparts and yellow underparts and sides of neck, and heavy streaking on underparts.

In alternate plumage, males have yellow breast with thin black stripes, reddish and yellow face, pale sides of neck, and darker face, wing bars and yellowish rump.

Females are duller and have less olive with streaking less distinct.

Immature birds are similar to adults. Immature females may be dull gray overall, with only a hint of yellow on rump.

CALL: A thin, very high “tsip”. 

SONG: A very high, sibilant “seet-seet- seet-seet”, a high pitched note repeated four to eight times. It usually sings from high perches.

Feeds mostly on insects such as caterpillars, spruce budworms, ants, flies, small bees, spiders and crickets. It also consumes plant nectar.

Breeds in coniferous and mixed woodlands, especially spruce forests. At other times, it lives in all kinds of woodlands and thickets, but often favors pines.

Breeds across the Canadian boreal forest, from Alberta to the Atlantic coast, and southward, to northern United States.

Winters throughout the northern Caribbean, and on the Caribbean coast of Central America.

Nest is a small but bulky open cup made with grasses, twigs and mosses, and lined with hair and feathers. It is located on a branch of a spruce or fir, from 9 - 18 meters above the ground.

The female lays 5 - 8 white eggs, with brown and grey spots, and incubates them.

SOURCES:
http://www.oiseaux-birds.com
https://www.allaboutbirds.org
https://en.wikipedia.org
https://www.sdakotabirds.com