Worm-eating Warbler

Helmitheros vermivorusOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Wood Warblers (Parulidae)

General

Worm-eating Warbler: Medium-sized, ground nesting warbler with olive-gray upperparts and pale yellow underparts. Yellow head has black crown stripes and eye-lines. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Worm-eating Warbler: Breeds from southeastern Iowa, Ohio, New York, and southern New England south to northeastern Texas, central Gulf Coast states, and eastern North Carolina. Spends winters in the tropics. Dry, wooded hillsides are the preferred habitat of this species.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"chip", "tseet"

Interesting Facts

The Worm-eating Warbler was first described in 1789 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin, a German naturalist, botanist and entomologist.

Late in incubation the female sits so tight on her nest that only touching her will flush her. Her cryptic coloring makes immobility a safe strategy.

Despite its name, it only rarely, if ever, eats earthworms. Instead, it feeds mostly on caterpillars, which were once referred to as worms.

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

Author

Gary Owen Dick

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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.

Worm-eating Warbler

Worm-eating Warbler: Medium-sized, ground nesting warbler with olive-gray upperparts and pale yellow underparts. Yellow head has black crown stripes and eye-lines. As its name suggests, it eats a steady diet of moth caterpillars and worms. It usually forages in understory vegetation and dead leaves.

● Song: "chip", "tseet"

● Foraging & Feeding: Worm-eating Warbler: Feeds on insects, especially caterpillars, spiders, and slugs; forages by walking, hopping, climbing, and hanging among leafy branches in shrubs and low trees.

● Breeding & nesting: Worm-eating Warbler: Four to six brown spotted or blotched, white eggs are laid in a ground nest made of dead leaves and lined with moss. Female incubates eggs for 13 days.

● Similar species: Worm-eating Warbler: Swainson's Warbler is larger, has longer bill, browner upperparts, and pale gray-brown underparts.

Flight Pattern

Direct flight with rapid wing beats.

● Range & Habitat: Worm-eating Warbler: Breeds from southeastern Iowa, Ohio, New York, and southern New England south to northeastern Texas, central Gulf Coast states, and eastern North Carolina. Spends winters in the tropics. Dry, wooded hillsides are the preferred habitat of this species.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationFairly common to common

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.7 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America