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Nashville Warbler

Status Fairly common in summer. Breeds. It arrives generally before mid-May (average 8 May, earliest 29 April) and is widely distributed over the province in summer. A few are routinely found in October (average 12 October, latest 17 November). Stragglers in Halifax on 3 December 1977, and on 2 and 8 December 1984, were at or in the vicinity of birdfeeders.

Description Length: 11.5-13 cm. Adults: Crown and sides of head gray; patch of chestnut on top of crown (sometimes lacking in female); back and wings olive-green; underparts yellow except lower belly, which is white; conspicuous white eye ring; wings without bars.

Breeding Nest: On the ground, similar in construction and location to that of the Tennessee Warbler. Eggs: 4-5; white, speckled profusely with cinnamon-brown chiefly around the larger end. A nest collected on 6 June 1922 at Albany, Annapolis County, contained four fresh eggs. It was embedded in the side of a low, mossy bank in partly cleared land near heavy woods of mixed growth. The female was particularly bold, advancing to within 2 m and protesting vehemently while a male, presumably her mate, sang persistently from a neighbouring tree. This nest was rather loosely built of grass placed on a foundation of moss and lined with fine grass, mixed with hair that might have come from a porcupine. Two other nests were found at Caledonia, Queens County, in June 1909; one on the 9th held four eggs and another on the 12th contained five eggs, both sets being about two-thirds incubated. The nests were typical in construction and located in a sparsely wooded pasture. One was lined with black, hairlike rootlets and the other with fine grass mixed with hair from a deer (H.F. Tufts).

Range Breeds from southwestern Newfoundland, southern Quebec, southern Manitoba and southern British Columbia, south to Maryland, northern Illinois, Nebraska and central California. Winters from northern Mexico to Guatemala.

Remarks Nashville Warblers—so-called because the first one was discovered at Nashville, Tennessee—are very active birds that usually feed in bushes and along lower branches. Look for them in summer about old, abandoned farms in the process of being reclaimed by the forest. During migration they become quite sociable and may suddenly appear in our gardens in a mixed throng of warblers, all obeying the same compelling urge. This bird could be confused with the Connecticut Warbler, which also has a white eye ring, but the Connecticut Warbler's throat is gray, not yellow. In fall the Nashville Warbler resembles an immature Magnolia Warbler, but that bird has a yellow rump and two white patches on its tail.

Its characteristic song might be described as a rapidly repeated sweetly-sweetly-sweetly sit-sit-sit-sit-sit, with less emphasis on the second part.