Townsend's warbler (Setophaga townsendi) is a small songbird of the New World warbler family.
Townsend's warbler was formally described in 1837 by the American naturalist John Kirk Townsend under the binomial name Sylvia townsendi.[2] The type locality is Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River in the state of Washington.[3] After the merger of the genera Dendroica and Setophaga,[4] Townsend's warbler is now placed in the genus Setophaga that was introduced by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1827.[5][6] The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.[6]
Townsend's warbler has a yellow face with a black stripe across its cheeks extending into an ear patch, a thin pointed bill, two white wing bars, olive upperparts with black streaks on their backs and flanks, and a white belly.[7] Adult males have a black cap, black throat and yellow lower breast; females have a dark cap and a yellow throat. Immature birds are similar to females with a dark green cap and cheeks.[8]
Their breeding habitats are coniferous forests with large trees on the northwestern coast of North America.[7] Their nests are shallow cups built with grass and lined with moss.[10] These nests are usually placed atop a branch in a conifer. The female lays 4 to 5 brown-speckled white eggs.[10]
This bird is closely related to the hermit warbler, and the two species interbreed where their ranges overlap.[8]
Birds from Haida Gwaii migrate short distances further south on the Pacific coast. Other birds winter in Mexico, Central America, and the south-western United States.[7]
They forage actively in the higher branches, often gleaning insects from foliage and sometimes hovering or catching insects in flight. [11] They mainly eat insects and spiders and seeds. Outside of the nesting season, these birds forage in mixed flocks. In winter, they also eat berries and plant nectar,[10] and honeydew directly from the anus of scale insects.[12]
The song of the male bird is a buzzed zee-zee-zee-bzz-zee or weazy weazy weazy weazy twea,[10] somewhat similar to that of its eastern relative, the black-throated green warbler.[8] The call is a sharp tup.
This bird was named after the American ornithologist, John Kirk Townsend.[2] Although Townsend is also credited with first describing this bird, he used a name chosen by Thomas Nuttall, who was travelling with him, and so sidestepped the convention against naming a species after oneself.[7]
Townsend's warbler (Setophaga townsendi) is a small songbird of the New World warbler family.
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