Orange-crowned Warbler

Vermivora celata

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 small, rather drab warbler of shrubs and low vegetation, the Orange-crowned Warbler is common and widespread in the West, but is much less common in most of the East. It can be one of the most numerous migrant warblers in the western and central United States, but its numbers decrease to the east.

Cool Facts

• The Orange-crowned Warbler is divided into four subspecies that differ in plumage color, size, and molt patterns. The one named celata is found in Alaska and across Canada, and it is the dullest and grayest. The Pacific Coast form, lutescens, is the brightest yellow. Found throughout the Rocky Mountains and Great Basin, orestera is intermediate in appearance. The form sordida is the darkest green and is found only on the Channel Islands and locally along the coast of southern California and northern Baja California.
• The boreal-nesting form of the Orange-crowned Warbler has one of the latest fall migrations of any warbler, not leaving its Canadian breeding grounds until late September or October.

• It is likely that most, if not all of the early fall (August and early September) reports of Orange-crowned Warblers from the eastern United States and southeastern Canada are actually dull Tennessee Warblers.

Description

• Size: 11-14 cm (4-6 in)
• Wingspan: 19 cm (7 in)
• Weight: 7-11 g (0.25-0.39 ounces)

• Small songbird; medium-sized warbler.
• Dusky olive-green overall.
• Faintly streaked chest.
• Yellow under tail.

• Greenish yellow underside.
• Brighter yellow on rump.
• Grayer on crown.
• Small dark line through eyes.
• Thin, broken yellow or white eyering.
• Small orange patch in middle of crown, usually hidden.
• Bill thin and very pointed.
• Bill horn-colored.
• Eyes black.
• Feet horn-colored.
• Western birds brightest yellow, eastern ones more dull and gray.

Sex Differences

Sexes similar, but female tends to be duller, with crown patch absent or less distinct.

Immature

Similar to adult, but duller; may show thin buffy wingbars.

Similar Species

• Tennessee Warbler can be very similar, but usually has white undertail, lacks the faint blurred streaks on the sides of the breast, lack the split eyering, and shows a brighter green back.
• Philadelphia Vireo is not as dull, has a thicker bill and a whitish stripe over the eye, lacks dusky chest streaking, and moves more slowly.
• Nashville Warbler has brighter yellow underparts and a white eyering.
• Hutton's Vireo has light wingbars.
• Yellow Warbler has plainer face with more prominent dark eyes, and has yellow tail spots.

Sound

Song a fast trill, changing in pitch at end. Call a sharp "chip."

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from western Alaska across Canada to Labrador, southward in western United States to southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Winter Range

Winters from California and coastal Virginia southward to southern Mexico and Guatemala.

Habitat

Breeds in streamside thickets and woodland groves with moderately dense foliage, and in understory of forests and chaparral. Winters in thickets and shrubs along streams, forests, weedy fields, and dense tangles of shrubs and vines.

Food

Insects and spiders.

Behavior

Foraging

Flits through vegetation gleaning at tips of boughs, leaves, and tree blossoms; moves rapidly from perch to perch, probing with bill into clusters of leaves and moss; sometimes hawks for arboreal or flying insects.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Open cup of leaves and fine twigs, bark, rootlets, weeds, moss, plant down, or wool, lined with fine grasses, moss, or fur. Placed on or near ground, often on steep slope.

Egg Description

Whitish with fine reddish brown speckles.

Clutch Size

Usually 4-6 eggs. Range: 3-6.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless with sparse dark gray down.

Conservation Status

Abundant over much of range. May be experiencing a gradual long-term decline.

Other Names

Paruline verdâtre (French)
Gusanero cabecigrís, Gusanero de corona anaranjada (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Sogge, M. K., W. M. Gilbert, and C. v. Riper III. 1994. Orange-crowned Warbler (Vermivora celata). In The Birds of North America, No. 101 (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.: The American Ornithologists? Union.