Lucy's Warbler

Lucy's Warbler

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1. Description
2. Sound
3. Conservation Status
4. Other Names
5. Cool Facts
6. Full detailed species account

One of the smallest of warblers, the Lucy's Warbler is a bird of the hot Sonoran desert. It occupies the driest habitat of all the warblers breeding in that area.

Description

• Small gray songbird.
• Gray above, off-white or buffy white below.
• Faint pale stripe over eye.

• Size: 9-12 cm (4-5 in)
• Weight: 5-8 g (0.18-0.28 ounces)

Sex Differences

Sexes similar; crown in female is paler or absent.

Sound

Song a trill with some pitch changes.

Conservation Status

Loss of riparian habitat responsible for the extirpation of some populations and the overall decrease across the breeding range.

Other Names

Paruline de Lucy (French)
Chipe rabadilla rufa, Gusanero de Lucy, Chipe rabadillicastño (Spanish)

Cool Facts

• The Lucy's Warbler is one of only two warblers that breeds in cavities. (The Prothonotary Warbler is the other.) If using a woodpecker hole, the warbler may fill the cavity nearly to the top with debris and put the nest on top so the bird can see out.

• The Lucy's Warbler nests in some of the densest aggregations of any warbler: up to 12.5 pairs/ha (5 pairs/acre). In the highest density areas the close proximity of singing males makes censusing them nearly impossible because their songs overlap so much.

Sources used to construct this page:

Johnson, R. R., H. K. Yard, and B. T. Brown. 1997. Lucy's Warbler (Vermivora luciae). In The Birds of North America, No. 318 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.