General

Fan-tailed Warbler: Small, secretive warbler with dark gray upperparts, red-brown underparts, and white-tipped tail. Head has yellow throat and patches. Juvenile is dark gray with two thin white wing-bars and pale yellow vent. Very rare visitor to desert canyons in southeastern Arizona.

Range and Habitat

Fan-tailed Warbler: Found from Mexico through Central America to Argentina. In Mexico, it is in the Pacific slope, from Sonora to Chiapas; in the Gulf slope from Tamaulipas to Veracruz, and also north of Oaxaca. Vagrant records exist for Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Habitats include dry or low rocky stream bottoms, the edges of evergreen and semi deciduous forest, especially near ravines.

Breeding and Nesting

Fan-tailed Warbler: Two to four white eggs, flecked with gray and red brown, are laid in a domed nest made of plant stems, fibers, and grass, lined with finer materials, and sheltered by grass, a bank, or a boulder. Incubation ranges from 12 to14 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Fan-tailed Warbler: Eats insects, spiders, berries, and seeds; follows army ant swarms in the tropics. Forages by walking or shuffling around on the ground; also hawks insects from the ground.

Vocalization

Fan-tailed Warbler: Song is a bold pleasing melody of slurred notes, beginning weakly and building to a strong ending with an up- and down-slurred note at the end, "suwee-suwee-suwee, chu." Call is a sharp, high "schree."

Similar Species

Fan-tailed Warbler: Yellow-breasted Chat has white belly and lack red-brown streaks.