Tennessee Warbler

Vermivora peregrinaOrder: PASSERIFORMES Family: Wood Warblers (Parulidae)

Codes: Common Name: TEWA Scientific Name: VERPER ITIS Taxonomic No.: 178855

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Overview

Tennessee Warbler: Small warbler with olive-green upperparts, white underparts, and olive-gray washed sides. Darker head has white eyebrows and dark eyestripes. Wings are plain gray. Tail is short. It spends the summers in Canada and is only found in Tennessee during migration. Eats mostly insects.

Range and Habitat

Tennessee Warbler: Breeds from Yukon, Manitoba, and Labrador south to British Columbia, Wisconsin, southern Ontario, and Maine. Spends winters in the tropics. Preferred habitats include open mixed woodlands in the breeding season; trees and bushes during migration.

Topo Map: Perching-like Body

Listen to Call

Similar Sounding

Voice Text

"seet-seet-seet", "chip-chip-chip"

Interesting Facts

The Tennessee Warbler specializes in eating the spruce budworm. Consequently its population goes up and down with fluctuations in the populations of the budworm.

A more apt name for this species might be the "Coffee Warbler" since it often over-winters in coffee plantations in Latin America.

Its breeding habits remained a mystery until 1901, when the first nests were discovered in Canada.

A group of warblers has many collective nouns, including a "bouquet", "confusion", "fall", and "wrench" of warblers.

Bird Term Glossary

Author

Gary Owen Dick

Artist

Imran Kahn

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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.

Tennessee Warbler

● Song: "seet-seet-seet", "chip-chip-chip"

● Foraging & Feeding: Tennessee Warbler: Diet consists of insects, such as small beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and aphids, spiders, sumac seeds, and poison ivy berries; also drinks juices from grapes by poking a hole in the fruit with its bill.

● Breeding & nesting: Tennessee Warbler: Four to seven brown splotched, white to creamy white eggs are laid in a nest lined with fine grass and built on the ground, usually well hidden under a shrub or in a moss clump under a tussock. Incubation ranges from 11 to 12 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Tennessee Warbler: Red-eyed Vireo is larger, has red eyes, and thicker bill. Winter Philadelphia Vireo is larger and has thicker bill. Orange-crowned Warbler has yellow undertail coverts and blurry streaks on breast.

Flight Pattern

Weak fluttering flight with shallow wing beats.

● Range & Habitat: Tennessee Warbler: Breeds from Yukon, Manitoba, and Labrador south to British Columbia, Wisconsin, southern Ontario, and Maine. Spends winters in the tropics. Preferred habitats include open mixed woodlands in the breeding season; trees and bushes during migration.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationFairly common

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.4 Ounces

Perching-like Body

Underparts

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

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

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