Worm-eating Warbler
Worm-eating Warbler: Medium-sized, ground nesting warbler with olive-gray upperparts and pale yellow underparts. Yellow head has black crown stripes and eye-lines. As its name suggests, it eats a steady diet of moth caterpillars and worms. It usually forages in understory vegetation and dead leaves.
● Song:
"chip", "tseet"
● Foraging & Feeding:
Worm-eating Warbler: Feeds on insects, especially caterpillars, spiders, and slugs; forages by walking, hopping, climbing, and hanging among leafy branches in shrubs and low trees.
● Breeding & nesting:
Worm-eating Warbler: Four to six brown spotted or blotched, white eggs are laid in a ground nest made of dead leaves and lined with moss. Female incubates eggs for 13 days.
● Similar species:
Worm-eating Warbler: Swainson's Warbler is larger, has longer bill, browner upperparts, and pale gray-brown underparts.
● Range & Habitat:
Worm-eating Warbler: Breeds from southeastern Iowa, Ohio, New York, and southern New England south to northeastern Texas, central Gulf Coast states, and eastern North Carolina. Spends winters in the tropics. Dry, wooded hillsides are the preferred habitat of this species.