American Redstart

Setophaga ruticilla

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family PARULIDAE

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A boldly-patterned warbler of second growth woods, the American Redstart frequently flashes its orange and black wings and tail to flush insect prey from foliage.

Cool Facts

• The American Redstart is not particularly closely related to the Painted Redstart and the other redstart warblers of the Neotropics. They all are similarly patterned and forage in similar ways, flashing their tails and wings to startle insect prey. In other parts of the world other unrelated species of birds look and act similarly, such as the fantails of Australia and southeastern Asia.

• A young male American Redstart resembles a female in plumage until its second fall. Males in the gray and yellow yearling plumage will try to hold territories and attract mates, singing vigorously. Some succeed in breeding in this plumage, but most do not breed successfully until they are two years old.

• The male American Redstart occasionally is polygynous, having two mates at the same time. Unlike many other polygynous species of birds that have two females nesting in the same territory, the redstart holds two separate territories up to 500 m (1,640 ft) apart. The male starts to attract a second female after the first has completed her clutch and is incubating the eggs.

Description

• Size: 11-13 cm (4-5 in)
• Wingspan: 16-19 cm (6-7 in)
• Weight: 6-9 g (0.21-0.32 ounces)

• Small songbird.
• Male black with orange patches on sides of chest, in wings, and in tail.
• Female and young males with gray head and back, and yellow instead of orange patches.
• Frequently fans tail and spreads wings.

• Tail with large patches of color at base, with a broad dark tip and dark central feathers (dark making a T shape).
• White belly.
• Small thin bill.

Sex Differences

Adult male black, orange, and white; female gray, yellow, and white.

Male

Adult male with black hood, back, wings, tail, and chest. Orange on sides of breast. Orange patches in wings and sides of base of tail. Belly white.

Female

Light gray head. Gray to light green back. Whitish below. Yellow patches on side of breast. Yellow patch in wing. Yellow base of outer tail feathers. Faint, broken white eyering. Black legs.

Immature

Immature like adult female. Immature male has darker tail and may have irregular patches of black on head, breast, or back.

Similar Species

• Blackburnian Warbler has orange face and throat, not in wings and tail.
• Magnolia Warbler shows inverted T-shaped patch in tail, but the patch is white and the chest should be yellow with dark markings.

Sound

Song variable; series of high notes, some with accented ending note. "Wee-see, wee-see, wee-see." Most characteristic is "tsee, tsee, tsee, tsee, tsway."

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from southeastern Alaska to Newfoundland, southward to Utah, Louisiana, and Georgia.

Winter Range

Winters in Mexico, Central America, and Caribbean, to northern South America. Also some in southern Florida, Texas, and California.

Habitat

Moist second growth deciduous forest, with abundant shrubs.

Food

Insects, some small fruits.

Behavior

Foraging

Moves rapidly while foraging. Flashes wings and tail to flush insect prey. Frequent flycatching.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest a tightly woven open cup fitted into branches or fork in tree or shrub. Made of grasses, bark strips, hair, leaves, twigs, or mosses, glued together with spider silk.

Egg Description

Creamy white with dark speckles around large end.

Clutch Size

1-5 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless with tufts of down.

Conservation Status

Declines seen in some areas, but still widespread and abundant.

Other Names

Petit du Feu, Paruline flamboyante (French)
Candelita, Pavito migratorio (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Sherry, T. W., and R. T. Holmes. 1997. American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla). In The Birds of North America, No. 277 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.