Part 42

Francis H. Allen (MS.) writes the song as "_wee wee wee wee bzzz_, heard many times without any apparent variation." This was somewhat different from the song of a cerulean I heard, which had a "chippy" beginning that suggested the song of a yellow palm warbler, and also that of the parula warbler. Rev. J. J. Murray writes to me from Virginia: "The songs of the parula and cerulean in this section are very similar, but not difficult to distinguish. The pattern is reversed in the two; the parula's song is 'bzz, bzz, bzz, trill', while that of the cerulean is a 'trill, trill, trill, bzz'. The cerulean's song can be expressed by the phrase '_Just a little sneeze_.'" A. D. DuBois tells me that "the beginning of the song is similar to that of the redstart, but it ends with a fine, 'wiry,' grasshopper-like trill, ascending in pitch and drawn out to nothing at the end." Mr. Chubb (1919) describes two songs of the cerulean warbler as follows:

The musical exercises of the bird consisted of an alternation of two distinctly different songs, so different indeed that until the bird was caught in the act we never for a moment suspected a single authorship. One song suggested slightly that of the Magnolia Warbler but rather softer, four syllables, though not quite so well defined as in the Magnolia. The other, for want of something better, might be compared with the song of the Parula Warbler, a short buzzing trill rising in the scale, much louder and less lispy than the song of the Parula. The songs were each of about one second duration, rendered approximately eight or ten times per minute. Altogether the performance was quite musical, in sweetness far above the average warbler song. These two songs were generally alternated with clock-like regularity, though occasionally the bird preferred to dwell upon one or other of his selections for the greater part of the day.

Kirkwood (1901) says: "It also gives its song in a low tone as if it whispered it, and unless the bird is carefully watched the observer might be led to believe that he heard a second bird singing in the distance. I have watched a bird sing thus between each regular song, at other times it would not give it at all, or only occasionally, while on two or three occasions I heard it given for quite a while to the exclusion of the regular song, and quite often have heard it given two or three or even more times in succession between regular songs." He has heard the cerulean warbler singing through July and until the middle of August; on August 19, he heard them singing "immature or imperfect (?) songs."

_Enemies._--The cerulean warbler is a rather uncommon victim of the eastern cowbird; not more than 10 cases seem to have been recorded.

_Field marks._--No other American wood warbler has a similar shade of heavenly blue on its back as the male cerulean; its under parts are pure white, relieved by a narrow black necklace, and it has two white wing bars. Females, young birds, and even fall males are similar, and are tinged with blue above and with pale yellow below, with a whitish or yellowish line over the eye. In this plumage they resemble the young parula warbler, but the latter is much deeper yellow on the breast and has no line over the eye.

_Fall._--Rathbun says in his notes from central New York: "When July comes the warblers will be found quite widely dispersed in any sort of forest, because they are now moving through the country in little family groups. Now and then will be heard snatches of the spring song. This is but preparatory for their departure from the region, which takes place in the latter part of August; we have never seen this warbler after the first week in September."

Professor Cooke (1904) writes:

The cerulean warbler is a rare migrant in the States along the Atlantic coast, though it has been noted in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. In northeastern Texas and Louisiana it is not uncommon. Its main route of migration seems to cross the Gulf of Mexico chiefly from Louisiana and Mississippi. The species is one of the first to start on the southward migration. By the middle of summer it has reached the Gulf coast and is well on its way to its winter home. At Beauvoir and Bay St. Louis, on the coast of Mississippi, it has appeared in different years on dates ranging from July 12 to 29. For a few days it is common, attaining the height of its abundance about the first week in August. It then passes southward so rapidly that Cherrie was able to record its presence on August 24, 1890, at San José, Costa Rica. By November it reaches central Ecuador. Though the bulk of the birds perform their migration at this early date, some laggards remain behind until late in the season.

Dr. A. F. Skutch tells me it is "exceedingly rare in Guatemala. * * * I have never seen the cerulean warbler in Central America." In Ecuador, I found a male in the Pastaza Valley, at an altitude of about 4,000 feet, on October 15, 1939. Two days later this warbler had become fairly common in this locality, and I saw several individuals.

_Winter._--Says Professor Cooke (1904): "The cerulean warbler is chiefly found in winter in South America from Panamá south to Perú, in which country it seems to have its center of abundance. In western Perú Jelski (Taczanowski, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 508, 1847) found it common at Monterico and other places in the mountains east of Lima at 10,000 to 13,000 feet elevation, always in wandering flocks, which were sometimes quite large and contained both old and young birds."

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--North and South America from southern Canada to Perú and Bolivia.

_Breeding range._--The cerulean warbler breeds =north= to southern Minnesota (Minneapolis); southern Wisconsin (Barahoo Bluffs, Madison, and Racine, possibly as far north as New London); central Michigan (Saginaw, Locke, and Detroit); southern Ontario (Thedford, Plover Mills, Warren, and Delta; perhaps Manotick); and southern New York (Lockport, Rochester, Ithaca, Santa Cruz Park, and Wappingers Creek, Dutchess County). =East= to southeastern New York (Dutchess County); rarely northeastern Maryland (Towson); southwestern Delaware (Seaford); western Virginia (Charlottesville and Natural Bridge); western North Carolina (Morganton and Pink Beds); and northern Georgia (Lumpkin County and Atlanta). =South= to north-central Georgia (Atlanta); south-central Alabama (Autaugaville and Greensboro); northern Louisiana (Monroe and Caddo Lake); and northern Texas (Texarkana and Dallas). =West= to northeastern Texas (Dallas); northeastern Oklahoma (Copan); southeastern Kansas (Independence); eastern Nebraska (Omaha and Pilgrim Hill, Dakota County); western Iowa (Sioux City); and southern Minnesota (Minneapolis).

_Winter range._--The winter home of the cerulean warbler is northwestern South America, in the valleys of the Andes from central Colombia (Antioquia, Medellín, and Bogotá) through Ecuador (Río Napo, Sara-yacu, and the Pataza Valley); to southern Perú (Huachipa and Lima). It has also been found occasionally or accidentally in central northern Venezuela (Rancho Grande); and in western Bolivia (Nairapi and Tilotilo near La Paz). Casual in winter or migration in the Cayman Islands and western Cuba.

_Migration._--Late dates of spring departure are: Perú--Huambo, March 15. Ecuador--near San José, March 31. Colombia--Buena Vista, March 4. Florida--Pensacola, April 26. Texas--Austin, April 30.

Early dates of spring arrival are: Florida--Dry Tortugas Island, March 23. Alabama--Greensboro, March 26. Georgia--Atlanta, April 13. South Carolina--Clemson (College), April 21. North Carolina--Asheville, April 23. Virginia--Charlottesville, April 13. West Virginia--Wheeling, April 23. Pennsylvania--McKeesport, April 23. New York--Corning, April 25. Louisiana--Grand Isle, March 27. Arkansas--Tillar, April 6. Tennessee--Athens, April 4. Kentucky--Eubank, April 5. Illinois--Olney, April 18. Indiana--Bloomington, April 11. Michigan--Bay City, April 26. Ohio--Toledo, April 20. Ontario--Hamilton, April 25. Missouri--St. Louis, April 12. Iowa--Hillsboro, April 18. Minnesota--Faribault, April 29. Texas--Victoria, March 17. Oklahoma--Copan, March 27. Kansas--Independence, April 24.

Late dates of fall departure are: Ontario--Point Pelee, September 5. Michigan--Detroit, September 5. Ohio--Ashtabula, September 27. Indiana--Whiting, October 4. Illinois--Chicago, September 28. Kentucky--Versailles, September 4. Tennessee--Athens, September 27. Mississippi--Gulfport, September 17. Oklahoma--Copan, October 1. Texas--Austin, September 27. New York--New York, September 18. Pennsylvania--Berwyn, September 29. North Carolina--Raleigh, September 16. Georgia--Augusta, September 16. Alabama--Birmingham, September 21. Florida--Pensacola, September 18. Costa Rica--San José, October 24.

Early dates of fall arrival are: Texas--Austin, July 20. Mississippi--Beauvoir, July 12. Virginia--Sweet Briar, July 20. Georgia--Athens, July 28. Florida--Pensacola, July 23. Costa Rica--Villa Quesada, August 23. Ecuador--Río Oyacachi, August 10. Perú--Huachipa, October 3.

_Casual records._--The majority of the cerulean warblers found east of the Allegheny Mountains might be considered as casual. All records for New England should as yet be so considered, though the species has increased in eastern New York in recent years. About 10 individuals have been recorded in Massachusetts; two in Rhode Island, and one in New Hampshire. On June 2, 1924, one was collected at Whitewater Lake, in southwestern Manitoba, the farthest north that the species has been found. There are two records for North Dakota; one near Jamestown on May 28, 1931, and another near Minot on May 24, 1937. A cerulean warbler was recorded near Denver, Colorado, on May 17, 1883, and a specimen collected on September 2, 1936, on Cherry Creek in Douglas County. A bird "observed at the Mimbres during the latter part of April" is the only record for New Mexico. On October 1, 1947, a specimen was collected at the southeastern edge of the Salton Sea in California; and on October 2, 1925, a specimen was collected near La Grulla in the Sierra San Pedro Mártir, Baja California.

_Egg dates._--Ontario: 3 records, June 2 to 13.

New York: 22 records, May 29 to July 9; 15 records, June 1 to 4.

Pennsylvania: 5 records, May 16 to 26.

DENDROICA FUSCA (Muller)

BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER

PLATES 40, 41

HABITS

Bagg and Eliot (1937) give the following account of the history of the naming of the Blackburnian Warbler:

Some time in the later eighteenth century, a specimen (apparently female) was sent from New York to England, and there described and named for a Mrs. Blackburn who collected stuffed birds and was a patron to ornithology. _Blackburniae_--Gmelin's latinization, in 1788, of this English name--was its scientific designation until quite recently, when in an obscure German publication, dated 1776, were discovered a description of a specimen from French Guiana (which is well east of the species' normal winter range), and the name _fusca_, blackish. Wilson recognized the male as a rare transient near Philadelphia, but when he shot a female (apparently, though he called it a male) in the Great Pine Swamp, Pa., he named it _Sylvia parus_, the Hemlock Warbler. Audubon, too, considered the Blackburnian and Hemlock Warblers distinct.

Blackburnian seems to be a doubly appropriate name, for its upper parts are largely black and its throat burns like a brilliant orange flame amid the dark foliage of the hemlocks and spruces. A glimpse of such a brilliant gem, flashing out from its sombre surroundings, is fairly startling.

Throughout most of the eastern half of the United States the Blackburnian warbler is known only as a migrant, mainly from the Mississippi Valley eastward. Its summer range extends from Manitoba eastward to Nova Scotia, from Minnesota to New England, and southward in the Allegheny Mountains to South Carolina and Georgia, in the Lower Canadian and Upper Transition Zones. For its breeding haunts it prefers the deep evergreen woods where spruces, firs, and hemlocks predominate, or often swampy woods where the black spruces are thickly draped with _Usnea_, offering concealment for birds and nests.

In Massachusetts, which is about the southern limit of its breeding range in New England, William Brewster (1888) describes its haunts at Winchendon as follows: "On both high and low ground, wherever there were spruces in any numbers, whether by themselves or mixed with other trees, and also to some extent where the growth was entirely of hemlocks, the Blackburnian Warbler was one of the most abundant and characteristic summer birds, in places even outnumbering the Black-throated Green Warbler, although it shunned strictly the extensive tracts of white pines which _D. virens_ seemed to find quite as congenial as any of the other evergreens."

Gerald Thayer wrote to Dr. Chapman (1907) that at Monadnock, New Hampshire, it is "a very common summer resident. It is one of the four deep-wood Warblers of this region, the other three being the Black-throated Blue, the Northern Parula and the Canada. While all the other summer Warblers of Monadnock seem better pleased with various sorts of lighter timber, these four are commonest in the small remaining tracts of primeval woodland, and in the heaviest and oldest second growth. But despite this general community of habit, each of the four has marked minor idiosyncrasies. The Blackburnian favors very big trees, particularly hemlocks, and spends most of its life high above the ground."

Professor Maurice Brooks (1936) says that Blackburnian warblers "are thoroughly at home in the deciduous second-growth timber that in so many places has replaced the coniferous forest. They range down to elevations of 2,500 feet in northern West Virginia. Here they associate with Golden-winged and Chestnut-sided warblers. A favorite perch is on some chestnut tree that has been killed by the blight." Rev. J. J. Murray tells me that, in Virginia, it is "common above 1,500 feet, wherever there are conifers." And Thomas D. Burleigh (1941) says of its status on Mount Mitchell in western North Carolina: "Although not known to breed above an altitude of approximately 5,000 feet, this species is fairly plentiful during the late summer in the fir and spruce woods at the top of the mountain, appearing regularly in July and lingering through September."

_Spring._--The Blackburnian warbler is apparently rare in spring in the Atlantic States south of North Carolina; its migration range extends westward to the plains of eastern Texas, eastern Kansas, and eastern Nebraska, but it is rare west of the forested regions of the Mississippi Valley. Professor Cooke (1904) says that the average rate of migration "from the mouth of the Mississippi to its source, where it breeds, appears to be scarcely 25 miles per day." Forbush (1929) writes:

It is generally regarded as rare in migration in Massachusetts, though probably untold numbers pass over the state every year, but only a few stop here. It is not when the birds are migrating that we see them, but when they _stop_ to rest. * * * I can recall but two instances in my lifetime when myriads of Blackburnian Warblers stopped here, though other similar flights probably have come when I was not there to see. At sunrise one morning in early May, many years ago, when the tiny green leaves were just breaking forth on the tall trees of the woods near Worcester, Blackburnians were everywhere in the tree-tops. They swarmed in the woods for miles. Years later, in Amesbury, on another May morning, the night flight, having met a cold wave from the north with a light frost, had come down to earth and the birds were busily looking for food; many Blackburnians and many other warblers were in the low shrubbery, in the grass, and even on plowed fields in every direction all through the village and about the farms. The sudden cold had stopped them. A few hours later as the day grew warmer they disappeared and were not seen again.

Brewster (1906) says: "We see the beautiful Blackburnian oftenest during the later part of May, in extensive tracts of upland woods, where it spends much of its time in the tops of the larger trees, showing a decided preference for hemlocks and white pines. In Cambridge I have repeatedly observed it in our garden and the immediate neighborhood, usually in tall elms or in blossoming apple trees."

_Nesting._--So far as I can learn, the nest of the Blackburnian warbler is almost always placed in a coniferous tree at heights ranging from 5 feet to over 80 feet above the ground; nests have been reported many times in hemlocks, which seems to be a favorite tree, but also in spruces, firs, tamaracks, pines and even a cedar. Ora W. Knight (1908) says: "I have found them breeding in colonies as a rule, that is to say, in a rather dense, mossy carpeted tract of evergreen woods near the pond at Pittsfield [Maine], covering perhaps a square mile, there were about ten pairs of these birds to be found, and in a tract of similar woods about half this size at Bangor there are often six or eight pair nesting. In other words, in suitable localities they tend to congregate in loosely scattered assemblies, while in less suitable spots, generally none, or at most a single pair will be found." Of a nest found near Winchendon, Mass., Brewster (1888) writes:

The nest, which was found by watching the female, was built at a height of about thirty feet above the ground, on the horizontal branch of a black spruce, some six feet out from the main stem. Its bottom rested securely near the base of a short, stout twig. Above and on every side masses of dark spruce foliage, rendered still denser by a draping of _Usnea_ (which covered the entire tree profusely), hid the nest so perfectly that not a vestige of it could be seen from any direction. This nest is composed outwardly of fine twigs, among which some of the surrounding _Usnea_ is entangled and interwoven. The lining is of horse hair, fine, dry grasses, and a few of the black rootlets used by _D. maculosa_. The whole structure is light and airy in appearance, and resembles rather closely the nest of the Chipping Sparrow.

The highest nest of which I can find any record is one reported by Dr. C. Hart Merriam (1885), found by A. J. Dayan in a grove of large white pines (_Pinus strobus_), in Lewis County, N. Y. It was saddled on a horizontal limb of one of the pines, about 84 feet from the ground and about 10 feet out from the trunk. "The nest is large, substantial, and very compact. It consists almost entirely of a thick and densely woven mat of the soft down of the cattail (_Typha latifolia_), with seeds attached, and is lined with fine lichens, horse hair, and a piece of white thread. On the outside is an irregular covering of small twigs and rootlets, with here and there a stem of moss or a bit of lichen."

The lowest nests that I have heard of are recorded in Frederic H. Kennard's notes from Maine; one was only 5-1/2 feet up and the other 9 feet from the ground in small spruces. Mrs. Nice (1932) found a nest near her mother's home in Pelham, Mass., that was "18 feet from the ground near the top of a cedar among comparatively open, young growth, 40 yards south of the house and 150 yards to the east of the great pines and hemlocks where the male habitually sang." The only nest of this warbler that I have ever seen was found by watching the female building it, on June 16, 1913, on an island in Lake Winnipegosis, Manitoba; it was only about 10 feet from the ground, near the end of a drooping branch of a large black spruce that stood on the edge of some coniferous woods next to an open swale. The nest, shaded from above, was partly concealed from below by dense foliage and was, apparently, well made of soft fibers, deeply cupped, and lined with some dark material and a little willow cotton. I was not able to visit the island again.

In New York State and in Pennsylvania, the nests of the Blackburnian warbler are almost invariably placed in hemlocks. All of the four nests recorded by T. E. McMullen (MS.) from the Pocono Mountains, Pa., were in hemlocks. And Todd (1940) states that with one exception all the nests found by R. B. Simpson, of Warren, Pa., were in hemlocks, "at elevations varying from twenty to fifty feet. The exceptional nest was in a large chestnut, sixty feet from the ground."

Dr. Roberts (1936) mentions a Minnesota nest "situated in an arbor vitae tree, directly over the entrance to a cabin," and one "placed in a small spruce, close to the trunk, about 2 feet from the top of the tree and about 20 feet from the ground." Another was found in "a jack-pine tree, 20 feet from the ground, 6 feet from the trunk, resting in a tangle of small branches, and concealed by a closely overhanging branch."

_Eggs._--The Blackburnian warbler lays normally 4 or 5 eggs, usually 4; in a series of 14 sets there are only 3 sets of 5. They are ovate to short ovate and slightly glossy. The ground color is snowy white or very pale greenish white, and is handsomely spotted and blotched with "auburn," "bay," "argus brown," "Mars brown," or "mummy brown," with undertones of "brownish drab," or "light vinaceous-drab." On some eggs the drab marks are the most prevalent, with fewer but more prominent spots or blotches of dark brown shades, such as "Mars brown" and "mummy brown." Others have spots of "auburn" and "bay" so concentrated that they form a solid band around the large end. In addition a few small scrawls of brownish black are often found. Generally speaking the markings tend to form a wreath, but some eggs are spotted more or less evenly all over the surface. The measurements of 50 eggs average 17.2 by 12.8 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =18.0= by 13.6, 17.0 by =13.7=, =15.6= by 12.5, and 17.1 by =12.0= millimeters (Harris).

_Young._--We have no information on incubation and very little on the care of the young. The male has been seen to go onto the nest, and evidently shares occasionally in the duty of incubation. Both parents help in feeding the young, as noted by Mrs. Nice (1932) at the nest she was watching. When Mrs. Nice's daughter climbed a tree near the nest, the female "assumed a peculiar attitude, her tail outspread and dropped at right angles to her body, her wings flipping rapidly and occasionally held stiffly up or down. The excitement caused the young to jump out on the ground where they could not be found."

_Plumages._--Dr. Dwight (1900) calls the natal down sepia-brown, and in speaking of the males, describes the juvenal plumage as "above, dark sepia-brown obscurely streaked on the back with clove-brown. Wings and tail clove-brown edged with olive-buff, the tertiaries and coverts with white forming two wing bands at tips of greater and median coverts; the outer three rectrices largely white. Below, white, washed with wood brown or buff on breast and sides, spotted, except on chin, abdomen and crissum, with dull sepia. Superciliary stripe cream-buff, spot on upper and under eyelid white; lores and auriculars dusky."