Lucy's Warbler

Vermivora luciae

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family PARULIDAE

Menu

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

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.

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.

Description

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

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

• Rufous crown patch (often not seen).
• Rufous rump (often not seen).
• Tail relatively short and slightly notched.
• Flicks tail.
• Small dark, pointed bill.

Sex Differences

Sexes similar; crown in female is paler or absent.

Immature

Similar to adult, but lacks crown patch and has faint buffy white wingbars.

Similar Species

• Distinguished from all other warblers by rufous rump and complete lack of yellow.
• Bell's Vireo has heavier bill and pale wingbars.
• Gnatcatchers are slimmer, have longer tails with black and white.
• Juvenile Verdin has longer tail and is uniformly gray with little contrast above and below.

Sound

Song a trill with some pitch changes.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from southeastern California and southern Nevada and Utah to western Texas.

Winter Range

Winters in southern Mexico. Some along Rio Grande in western Texas.

Habitat

Breeds in riparian mesquite woodlands.

Food

Insects.

Behavior

Foraging

Forages in tops of mesquite trees and at the ends of branches. Catches and shakes caterpillars before swallowing.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest in cavity, well woven of twigs, weed stalks, straw, mesquite leaf stems, lined with fine bark, plant fibers, hair, and feathers. Nest placed behind loose bark of tree or in cavities in trees or cactus. Also in abandoned Verdin nests. Does not use nest boxes.

Egg Description

White with fine reddish spots concentrated at large end.

Clutch Size

Usually 4-5 eggs. Range: 3-7.

Condition at Hatching

Naked and helpless.

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)

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.