Overview

Orange-crowned Warbler: Small warbler with olive-green upperparts and faintly streaked, yellow underparts. The head has inconspicuous orange crown, broken eye-ring, and dark eye-line. Though it lives and nests in dense foliage close to the ground, the male perches at the tops of tall trees to sing.

Range and Habitat

Orange-crowned Warbler: Breeds from Alaska east to Quebec and Labrador, and south to California, Arizona, and New Mexico. Spends winters from southern U.S. into tropics. Preferred habitats include forest edges, especially in low deciduous growth, burns, clearings, and thickets; often seen in riverside willows and scrub oak chaparral during migration.

Breeding and Nesting

Orange-crowned Warbler: Three to six white eggs with dark red and brown blotches are laid in a large nest made of grass and other plant fibers, lined with fur or feathers, and built on the ground or in a low shrub. Incubation ranges from 12 to 14 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Orange-crowned Warbler: Eats invertebrates, berries, nectar, and sap; regularly feeds at Red-naped Sapsucker wells.

Readily Eats

Sugar Water, Fruit, Nut Pieces

Vocalization

Orange-crowned Warbler: Song is a simple trill going up or down the scale toward the end. Call is a sharp "stik."

Similar Species

Orange-crowned Warbler: Tennessee Warbler has blue-gray head, olive-gray back, and dark eye-line. Ruby-crowned Kinglet is smaller and has broken eye-rings and wing-bars.