From Opus

Male
Photo by kegressy
Point Pelee, Ontario, Canada

Setophaga petechia

Includes: Mangrove Warbler

[edit] Identification

A widespread New World warbler, with great geographical variation.

• L. 4 in
• Thin, pointed bill
• Mostly yellow plumage
• Upperparts greenish-yellow
• Yellowish legs
• Plain yellow face with yellow eye ring

Male

• Golden yellow
• Rusty streaks on breast and flanks
• In the tropical parts of its breeding range this bird (especially the male) may have a chestnut head or crown patch.

Subspecies chlora
Photo by caribemotion
Cayos Siete Hermanos, Dominican Republic, 2009

Female

• Plain yellow
• Streaks on breast absent or barely present
• Notice yellow tail spots on undertail (white in most species where present)

Some have pale gray wash to plumage (southwestern US)

[edit] Distribution

Breeds within North America from Alaska east across Canada to Newfoundland and south to southern California, northern Oklahoma, and northern Georgia; local in southern Florida; these subspecies which belong to the aestiva group of subspecies which winters in tropics. Additionally found in a number of largely non-migratory subspecies in the Caribbean (the petechia = "golden warbler" group), and in Mexico, Central America and northern South America (the erithachorides = "mangrove warbler" group). In total, there are thirty-four subspecies. The three groups mentioned have previously been considered separate species but are now considered one wide-ranging species.

Accidental to Greenland (2 records), Iceland (1 record), and Great Britain (3 records).

Female
Photo by bobsofpa
Magee Marsh, Ohio, USA, May 2009

[edit] Taxonomy

Sometimes split in two species, American Yellow Warbler (Setophaga aestiva) and Mangrove Warbler (Setophaga petechia).

Consists of as many as 43 subspecies.

[edit] Subspecies¹

• S. p. aequatorialis² - breeds in the Pearl Islands and adjacent Panama
• S. p. aestiva - breeds across eastern United States west to Montana, Wyoming and eastern Colorado
• S. p. aithocorys - breeds along the pacific coast of Panama from Chiriquí to Coclé
• S. p. albicollis² - breeds in Hispaniola, Gonâve and adjacent islands
• S. p. alsiosa²' - breeds in the Grenadines
• S. p. amnicola - breeds in boreal Canada from eastern Yukon Territory east to Newfoundland
• S. p. armouri - breeds on Isla Providéncia
• S. p. aureola - breeds on Cocos Island and Galapagos Islands
• S. p. aurifrons² - breeds coastal Venezuela, Tortuga Islands, and Piritu

Juvenile
Photo by mrmike
Cuba, January 2007

• S. p. babad² - breeds on Saint Lucia
• S. p. banksi - breeds in Alaska (absent from southern coastal region) and west Northwest Territories
• S. p. bartholemica² - breeds in Montserrat and in the northern Lesser Antilles
• S. p. brewsteri - breeds along coastal Pacific United States
• S. p. bryanti² - breeds from the Yucatán Peninsula south to Belize and Costa Rica
• S. p. castaneiceps - breeds southern half of Baja California
• S. p. chlora - breeds in the Dominican Republic on some small offshore islands
• S. p. chrysendeta² - breeds in northeast Colombia (Guajira Peninsula) and northwest Venezuela (Zulia)
• S. p. cienagae² - breeds in northern Venezuela (coastal Carabobo and Aragua) and offshore islands
• S. p. cruciana² - breeds on Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands
• S. p. dugesi² - breeds central Mexico
• S. p. eoa² - breeds on Jamaica and Cayman Islands
• S. p. erithachorides² - breeds coastal Atlantic Panama and northern coastal Colombia
• S. p. flaviceps - breeds in the Bahamas
• S. p. flavida² - breeds on San Andres Islands
• S. p. parkesi - breeds in far northern Canada from northern Northwest Territories to north-western Ontario
• S. p. gundlachi - breeds at southern tip of Florida and the Keys; also Cuba and the Isle of Pines
• S. p. iguanae - breeds on Isla Iguana
• S. p. jubaris - breeds in coastal Panama
• S. p. melanoptera² - breeds in Guadeloupe, Dominica and central Lesser Antilles
• S. p. morcomi - breeds in the Rocky Mountain region in Canada and the United States
• S. p. obscura² - breeds on Islas Los Roques
• S. p. oraria - breeds along the Mexican Gulf Coast
• S. p. paraguanae² - breeds in northwest Venezuela (Paraguaná Peninsula of Falcón)
• S. p. petechia² - breeds in Barbados
• S. p. peruviana² - breeds in extreme southwest Colombia (Nariño) to western Ecuador and northern Peru (Lima)
• S. p. phillipsi - breeds from southern Mexico to Honduras
• S. p. rhizophorae - breeds northwestern Mexico mainland coast
• S. p. rubiginosa - breeds along pacific coastal Canada and southern coastal Alaska west to along the Aleutians
• S. p. ruficapilla² - breeds in Martinique
• S. p. rufivertex² - breeds on Cozumel Island
• S. p. rufopileata² - breeds in the Netherlands Antilles
• S. p. solaris - breeds on Gonave and Petit Gonave in Haiti
• S. p. sonorana - breeds in southern Arizona and New Mexico
• S. p. xanthotera² - breeds along the pacific coast of Guatemala south to Costa Rica

Formerly placed in genus Dendroica.

[edit] Habitat

In the US, inhabits moist thickets, especially along streams and in swampy areas, gardens, overgrown pastures, and woodland edges, it is more limited to riparian habitat in the west than the east.

The erithachorides group mainly belongs in mangroves, while the petechia group exhibit geographical variation in its habitat choice, ranging from mangroves to coastal scrub to highland moist forest depending on the island.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Breeding

4 or 5 pale blue eggs, thickly spotted with brown, in a well-made cup of bark, plant fibers, and down, placed in an upright fork in a small sapling.

The main species to be paratisized by cowbirds (Brown-headed Cowbird in temperate North America and Shiny Cowbird in tropical areas). If the female finds an alien egg in the nest she will cover it and lay another clutch.

[edit] Vocalisation

Song: Cheery, melodic sweet-sweet-sweet, sweeter-than-sweet; there is some geographical variation
Call: A sharp chip

[edit] References

1. Dunn, Jon; Garrett, Kimball. 1997. A Field Guide to Warblers of North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 9780395783214
2. Clements, JF. 2011. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to August 2011. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
3. eNature

• List of references

[edit] External Links