Bay-breasted Warbler

Dendroica castaneaOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Wood Warblers (Parulidae)

General

Bay-breasted Warbler: Medium-sized warbler with dark-streaked gray upperparts and buff underparts with chestnut-brown patches on breast and flanks. Head has dark brown crown and black mask. Wings are black with two white bars. Female is much duller. Winter adult and juvenile resemble female but are washed with olive-green.

Range and Habitat

Bay-breasted Warbler: Breeds from northeastern British Columbia east to Maritime Provinces and south to the northern Great Lakes region and northern New England. Spends winters in the tropics. Preferred habitats include open spruce forests and deciduous woodlands.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"tees teesi teesi teesi teesi teesi"

Interesting Facts

The Bay-breasted Warbler is closely related to the Blackpoll Warbler, and hybrids between the two species are known. They are also known to hybridize with Yellow-rumped and Blackburnian warblers.

In contrast to the more stable populations of other warblers, their numbers go up and down depending on outbreaks of the spruce budworm. They are abundant during infestations, but decline or even disappear from some areas a few years later.

Eighty-two percent of the global population of Bay-breasted Warbler nests in the boreal forest of North America.

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.

Bay-breasted Warbler

Bay-breasted Warbler: Medium-sized warbler with dark-streaked gray upperparts and buff underparts with chestnut-brown patches on the chin, throat, breast and flanks. The head has a dark brown crown and black mask. Wings are black with two white bars. It is one of the largest warblers.

● Song: "tees teesi teesi teesi teesi teesi"

● Foraging & Feeding: Bay-breasted Warbler: Eats caterpillars, beetles, flies, moths, mayflies, ants, lacewings, and canker worms. Generally gleans prey from mid-level, inner part of conifers, particularly on lichen-covered limbs with little foliage, but readily forages at other heights within the tree and in broad-leaved foliage.

● Breeding & nesting: Bay-breasted Warbler: Four to six brown or purple marked, white, green or blue eggs are laid in a loosely built, hair-lined nest made of twigs, grass, and needles set in a conifer as much as 50 feet above the ground. Incubation ranges from 12 to 13 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Bay-breasted Warbler: Chestnut-sided Warbler has yellow crown and white throat. In winter, Blackpoll Warbler has yellow legs, white undertail coverts, and more streaks on breast. Pine Warbler lacks black streaks on the back and has yellow on throat and breast.

Flight Pattern

Weak flight on rapidly beating wings.

Bay-breasted Warbler Breeding Adult Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: Bay-breasted Warbler: Breeds from northeastern British Columbia east to Maritime Provinces and south to the northern Great Lakes region and northern New England. Spends winters in the tropics. Preferred habitats include open spruce forests and deciduous woodlands.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationAbundant

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.5 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America