MacGillivray's Warbler

Oporornis tolmieiOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Wood Warblers (Parulidae)

General

MacGillivray's Warbler: Medium-sized warbler with olive-green upperparts and yellow underparts. White eye-ring is broken and slate gray hood extends to upper breast where it darkens to black. Female is similar but paler. Winter adult has paler hood and less distinct eye-ring.

Range and Habitat

MacGillivray's Warbler: Breeds from Alaska and the Yukon south to California and central New Mexico. Spends winters in the tropics. Preferred habitats include coniferous forest edges, burns, brushy cuts, or second-growth alder thickets and streamside growth.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"swee-eet, swee-eet, swee-eet, peachy, peachy, peachy"

Interesting Facts

MacGillivray's and Mourning Warblers are now considered distinct species, but in the past they had been thought to be the same species on the basis of similar plumages and possible cases of hybridization where their ranges overlap.

Size disparity, consistent differences in morphology and song, and physical separation of breeding ranges supports the recognition of separate species.

It was named by John James Audubon for his friend Dr. W. MacGillivray. Audubon coined this name even though John Kirk Townsend had already named the species "Tolmie's Warbler," after Dr. W. T. Tolmie. The scientific name "tolmiei" was given in his honor.

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.

MacGillivray's Warbler

MacGillivray's Warbler: Medium-sized warbler with olive-green upperparts and yellow underparts. White eye-ring is broken and slate gray hood extends to upper breast where it darkens to black. It forages for insects on or close to the ground. As it hops, it often flicks its tail from side to side.

● Song: "swee-eet, swee-eet, swee-eet, peachy, peachy, peachy"

● Foraging & Feeding: MacGillivray's Warbler: Eats mostly insects; forages close to the ground in dense thickets.

● Breeding & nesting: MacGillivray's Warbler: Three to six brown marked, white to creamy white eggs are laid in a grassy cup nest built close to the ground in a bush or tall weeds. Eggs are incubated for 11 days by the female.

● Similar species: MacGillivray's Warbler: Mourning Warbler lacks broken eye-ring. Females and juveniles of the two species are difficult to tell apart and are best separated by range. Connecticut Warbler is larger and has complete eye-rings.

Flight Pattern

Fairly swift direct flight for short distances.

MacGillivray's Warbler Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: MacGillivray's Warbler: Breeds from Alaska and the Yukon south to California and central New Mexico. Spends winters in the tropics. Preferred habitats include coniferous forest edges, burns, brushy cuts, or second-growth alder thickets and streamside growth.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationFairly common

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.4 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America