From Opus

Photo by KCFoggin
Myrtle Beach South Carolina , USA, February 2010

Includes Bahama Warbler

Dendroica dominica

[edit] Identification

5" (13 cm). Grey, unstreaked upperparts, bright yellow throat, white belly, black-and-white facial pattern, heavy black streaks on sides. Sexes alike.

[edit] Distribution

Breeds from Illinois, Ohio, and New Jersey south to Missouri, Texas, Gulf Coast, and northern Florida. Winters from Gulf Coast states southward. Occasionally it may stray, and even breed, as far north of its usual range as New York and southern New England.

[edit] Taxonomy

Four subspecies are recognized¹.

• D. d. albilora - breeds se. Iowa south to e. Texas e. to Pennsylvania, western Carolinas, and northwestern Alabama
• D. d. dominica - breeds along the Atlantic coastal plain from s. New Jersey south to cen. Florida w. to Alabama
• D. d. flavescens - breeds in the Bahamas
• D. d. stoddardi - breeds along coastal Florida panhandle and adjacent Alabama

Subspecies flavescens has been proposed for elevation to status of full species named Bahama Warbler.

[edit] Habitat

Forests of pine, cypress, sycamore, and oak, in both swampy places and dry uplands. This attractive warbler is usually found in live oaks draped with Spanish moss or in longleaf pines.

[edit] Behaviour

It often creeps over the branches of the trunk like a Black-and-white Warbler.

Breeding: 4 purple-spotted greenish eggs in a nest of grass and bark strips lined with hair and feathers, often set in clumps of Spanish moss or among pine needles.

Voice: A series of clear ringing notes descending in pitch and increasing in speed, rising abruptly at the end, teeew-teeew-teeew-teeew-tew-tew-twi.

[edit] References

1. Clements, James F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2007. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801445019
2. BirdForum thread discussing the proposal to see flavescens as a full species

• List of references

[edit] External Links