BIRD SPECIES

Kentucky Warbler

 SCIENTIFIC NAME: Geothlypis Formosa

The Kentucky Warbler is a sluggish and heavy warbler with a unique appearance and is difficult to confuse with other warbler’s species in the family Parulidae.

Adults are 5.1 inches in length, with a wingspan of 7.9 - 8.7 and weight of 13 - 14 grams.

Adult males have bright olive green upperparts, no wing bars and no tail spots or bars. The underparts are bright yellow, including chin and throat. 
On the head, forehead, crown and head sides are black. The eyes are bordered by a yellow stripe above, from lores to ear coverts, and below by thin incomplete yellow eye-ring. This yellow pattern forms “spectacles”. On the hindcrown, the feathers are tipped gray.
The thin, pointed bill is black with pale pink base to mandible. Eyes are dark brown. Long legs and feet are pale pink.

Adult females resemble the males, but are duller, with the black color of the head sometimes reduced or mottled with grayish-olive.

Juveniles are similar to adults but are duller, with a rather olive-green than black areas. The adult head pattern is lacking.

CALL: Most common call is a low, sharp “chuck” or “chip”. Both male and female may give high-pitched “teep” under extreme stress when predators threaten the nest. This call may be uttered as a single note or very rapidly, almost as a trill.  

SONG: A series of rolling musical notes “churry churry churry”. Each note can be repeated six times. The second syllable is higher and shorter. Only the male sings and it has usually one song type for all its life. Both adults and young give the common “chip”.

Feeds on insects and various other arthropods, and occasionally takes fruits.

Breeds in woodlands with luxuriant undergrowth near streams, usually at low elevation.

Winters in undergrowth of moist tropical lowlands, and foothill second- growth forests, and also in mature tropical forests.

Breeds in Central and Eastern United States, as far as Southern Wisconsin to Pennsylvania.

Winters from Eastern and Southern Mexico South to Panama, and the species is irregular in adjacent Northern Colombia and Northern Venezuela and Caribbean. They fly non-stop across the Gulf of Mexico.

The female builds an open cup-shaped nest with woven coarse grasses. The base is often made with large oak leaves. The interior is lined with grasses and fine dark rootlets. The nest is placed between supporting stems or dead twigs in small brush pile.

She lays 3 - 6 grayish white to creamy-white eggs often marked with brown or gray spots. She incubates the eggs for 11 - 13 days.

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