Bird name:

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Dendroica caerulescens

Order

PASSERIFORMES

Family

Wood Warblers (Parulidae)

Code 4

BTBW

Code 6

DENCAE

ITIS

178888

Breeding Location:

Forest edge, Bushes, shrubs, and thickets, Mountains

Breeding Type:

Monogamous, Solitary nester

Breeding Population:

Egg Color:

White with gray and brown flecks and markings

Number of Eggs:

3 - 5

Incubation Days:

12 - 13

Egg Incubator:

Female

Nest Material:

Bark pieces, dried grasses, stems, and leaves with lining of fur, grass, hair, mosses, and rootlets.

Migration:

Migratory

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General

Black-throated Blue Warbler: Small warbler that is the most strikingly sexually dimorphic of all wood warblers. Male has dark blue upperparts, black throat and mask, white underparts, and prominent white wing patch at base of primaries. Female has olive-brown upperparts, olive-yellow underparts, white eyebrow, and white wing patch.

Range and Habitat

Black-throated Blue Warbler: Breeds from Ontario east to Quebec and Nova Scotia, south to Minnesota, Great Lakes, and Connecticut, and in the mountains to northern Georgia; spends winters in Gulf coast states and the Greater Antilles. Preferred habitats include mixed deciduous and evergreen woodlands with thick undergrowth, especially mountain laurel.

Breeding and Nesting

Black-throated Blue Warbler: Three to five white eggs, marked and flecked with brown and gray, are laid in a nest made of leaves and grass, lined with cobwebs and hair, and set near the ground in a shrub or young tree. Incubation ranges from 12 to 13 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Black-throated Blue Warbler: Feeds on insects and other small invertebrates. During the breeding season, forages from on the ground to high in the forest canopy; male often forages higher than female; locates a high percentage of prey from the lower surface of leaves. Small fruits are often eaten during winter.

Readily Eats

Sugar Water, Fruit, Nut Pieces

Vocalization

Black-throated Blue Warbler: Song is a husky, rising "zwee-zwee-zwee."

Similar Species

Black-throated Blue Warbler: Tennessee Warbler has unbroken white line behind eye and lacks white wing patch. Orange-crowned Warbler has yellow to green upperparts and yellow-green underparts.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Underparts

Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Eyebrow

Also called the supercilicum or superciliary it is the arch of feathers over each eye.

Primaries

The primaries are the flight feathers specialized for flight. They are attached to the "hand" equivalent part of the wing.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America