Nashville Warbler

Vermivora ruficapillaOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Wood Warblers (Parulidae)

General

Nashville Warbler: Small warbler with olive-green upperparts, bright yellow underparts, and white lower belly. Small cap is chestnut-brown, gray hood extends to back, and eye-ring is white. Female and juvenile are slightly duller and lack brown caps.

Range and Habitat

Nashville Warbler: Breeds from British Columbia and northwestern Montana south to central California and central Idaho; and from Manitoba, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, south to Minnesota, northern West Virginia, and western Maryland. Spends winters south of the U.S.-Mexico border. Preferred habitats include thickets in open mixed forests or brushy borders of swamps.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"teebit-teebit-teebit, chipper-chipper-chipper-chipper"

Interesting Facts

Although named after Nashville, Tennessee, the Nashville Warbler only visits that area during migration. It was first observed there in 1811 by Alexander Wilson, who named the species.

The western population was once considered a separate species, called the "Calaveras Warbler."

It sometimes uses porcupine quills as nest material.

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.

Nashville Warbler

Nashville Warbler: Small warbler, olive-green upperparts, yellow underparts, white lower belly. Small chestnut-brown cap, barely noticeable. Gray hood extends to back, eye-ring is white. Two breeding populations, a mid to northeastern one that doesn't wag its tail, and a Pacific Coast one that does.

● Song: "teebit-teebit-teebit, chipper-chipper-chipper-chipper"

● Foraging & Feeding: Nashville Warbler: Eats mostly insects; forages by gleaning food from foliage, usually in mid-levels of a forest.

● Breeding & nesting: Nashville Warbler: Four or five white to creamy white eggs with small brown spots are laid in a cup of grass, leaves, and roots, lined with pine needles and fine grass, and concealed on the ground at the base of a bush or tussock of grass. Incubation ranges from 11 to 12 days and is carried out by both parents.

● Similar species: Nashville Warbler: Mourning and MacGillivray's warblers lack yellow throats and complete white eye-rings.

Flight Pattern

Weak flight on rapidly beating wings.

● Range & Habitat: Nashville Warbler: Breeds from British Columbia and northwestern Montana south to central California and central Idaho; and from Manitoba, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, south to Minnesota, northern West Virginia, and western Maryland. Spends winters south of the U.S.-Mexico border. Preferred habitats include thickets in open mixed forests or brushy borders of swamps.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationCommon to fairly common

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.3 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America