Black-throated Gray Warbler

Dendroica nigrescensOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Wood Warblers (Parulidae)

General

Black-throated Gray Warbler: Small warbler with black-marked, slate-gray upperparts, black streaks on flanks, and white underparts. Head has black hood and throat, sharply contrasting white eyebrow and cheek stripe, and yellow spot in front of eye. Wings are dark with two white bars. Female has white throat and thick, black eyestripe. Juvenile is similar to female but with less black.

Range and Habitat

Black-throated Gray Warbler: Breeds from southern British Columbia (except Vancouver Island), Washington, Idaho, and Colorado southward. Spends winters in the southwest U.S. and Mexico. Preferred habitats include shrubby openings in coniferous forests or mixed woods, dry scrub oak, pinyon and juniper, chaparral, and other low brushy areas.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"weezy- weezy-weezy- weezy- wueeo"

Interesting Facts

The Black-throated Gray Warbler is considered a short-distance migrant, moving from its breeding areas in the western United States only as far south as Mexico.

Migrating warblers follow mountain ranges and the Pacific coastline southward. Despite these landmarks, however, some get lost. A few turn up every year in the eastern states as vagrants.

They pretend to have a broken wing to distract intruders from finding their nests.

A group of warblers has many collective nouns, including a "bouquet", "confusion", "fall", and "wrench" of warblers.

Author

Gary Owen Dick

Range Map for Black-throated Gray Warbler

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Black-throated Gray Warbler

Black-throated Gray Warbler: Small warbler, black-marked, slate-gray upperparts, black streaks on flanks, white underparts. Head has black hood and throat, sharply contrasting white eyebrow and cheek stripe, and yellow spot in front of eye. Wings are dark with two white bars. Black bill, legs, feet.

● Song: "weezy- weezy-weezy- weezy- wueeo"

● Foraging & Feeding: Black-throated Gray Warbler: Feeds mainly on insects such as moths, butterflies, beetles, and ants. Also eats leaf galls and a few spiders.

● Breeding & nesting: Black-throated Gray Warbler: Four to five white eggs, with brown and purple spots and blotches, are laid in a tightly woven plant-fiber cup in a bush or tree, usually less than 10 feet above the ground. Eggs are incubated for approximately 12 days by the female.

● Similar species: Black-throated Gray Warbler: Black-and-white Warbler has more heavily streaked breast, striped crown, and prefers to forage on trunks and main branches of trees rather than in leaves and smaller twigs.

Flight Pattern

Weak flight on rapidly beating wings.

Black-throated Gray Warbler Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: Black-throated Gray Warbler: Breeds from southern British Columbia (except Vancouver Island), Washington, Idaho, and Colorado southward. Spends winters in the southwest U.S. and Mexico. Preferred habitats include shrubby openings in coniferous forests or mixed woods, dry scrub oak, pinyon and juniper, chaparral, and other low brushy areas.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationFairly common to common

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.3 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America