Townsend's warbler

Townsend's warbler was formally described in 1837 by the American naturalist John Kirk Townsend under the binomial name Sylvia townsendi.^[2] The type locality is Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River in the state of Washington.^[3] After the merger of the genera Dendroica and Setophaga,^[4] Townsend's warbler is now placed in the genus Setophaga that was introduced by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1827.^[5][6] The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.^[6]

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.^[7] 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.^[8]

Their breeding habitats are coniferous forests with large trees on the northwestern coast of North America.^[7] Their nests are shallow cups built with grass and lined with moss.^[10] These nests are usually placed atop a branch in a conifer. The female lays 4 to 5 brown-speckled white eggs.^[10]

This bird is closely related to the hermit warbler, and the two species interbreed where their ranges overlap.^[8]

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.^[7]

They forage actively in the higher branches, often gleaning insects from foliage and sometimes hovering or catching insects in flight.^[11] 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,^[10] and honeydew directly from the anus of scale insects.^[12]

The song of the male bird is a buzzed zee-zee-zee-bzz-zee or weazy weazy weazy weazy twea,^[10] somewhat similar to that of its eastern relative, the black-throated green warbler.^[8] The call is a sharp tup.

This bird was named after the American ornithologist, John Kirk Townsend.^[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.^[7]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Setophaga townsendi.

Wikispecies has information related to Setophaga townsendi.

• "Townsend's warbler media". Internet Bird Collection.
• Townsend's warbler species account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Townsend's warbler - Dendroica townsendi - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
• Townsend's warbler photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
• Townsend's warbler species account at Neotropical Birds (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)