Northern Waterthrush - BirdForum Opus

Photo by D. Taylor
Wayne County, North Carolina, September 2011

Parkesia noveboracensis

Seiurus noveboracensis

Identification

12-14 cm

• Brown back
• Whitish or creamy underside with dark stripes
• Whitish or yellowish eyestripe
  

Sexes similar

Similar species

Louisiana Waterthrush See Sibley's take on these two⁵

Distribution

Alaska, most of Canada south to the northern U.S. in eastern Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana; in the east south to Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Winters to the West Indies and northern South America.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Clements considers this a monotypic species¹ while Dunn et al.² recognize the following three subspecies:

• P. n. limnaeus - breeds in central British Columbia
• P. n. notabilis - breeds across the western range to western Quebec
• P. n. noveboracensis - breeds from eastern Quebec to the southern part of range

It was formerly placed in genus Seiurus.

Habitat

Wooded swamps, thickets of bogs, margins of northern lakes, and willow and alder bordered rivers.

Behaviour

Diet

Main food consists of invertebrates found on the ground. Feeding behavior includes tossing leaf litter aside to find hidden prey.

Vocalisation

Song: loud and ringing, starts with several phrases on one pitch, followed by an accelerating jumble of short, rapid phrases dropping slightly in pitch.
Call: a sharp, metallic "chink."

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2012. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2012. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
2. Dunn, Jon; Garrett, Kimball. 1997. A Field Guide to Warblers of North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 9780395783214
3. 51st supplement to the AOU checklist of North American birds
4. All About Birds
5. Sibley's id paper on Waterthrush identification

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Northern Waterthrush. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 25 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Northern_Waterthrush

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