Swainson's Warbler

Limnothlypis swainsoniiOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Wood Warblers (Parulidae)

General

Swainson's Warbler: Medium-sized warbler with olive-brown upperparts and pale gray underparts. Head has brown cap, white eyebrows, and dark eye-lines. Wings are plain olive-brown. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Swainson's Warbler: In southeast U.S., lives in canebrakes and thickets in swamps and among hardwoods; in the southern Appalachians it is found in laurel and rhododendron thickets of moist, montane forests.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"whee-whee-whee, whip-poor-will", "chip"

Interesting Facts

The Swainson's Warbler is unusual for its two populations breeding in entirely different habitat types.

If it weren't for its loud, ringing song, its presence in many areas would go completely undetected.

It is named after William Swainson, an early-19th-century British naturalist.

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.

Swainson's Warbler

Swainson's Warbler: Medium-sized warbler with olive-brown upperparts and pale gray underparts. Head has brown cap, white eyebrows, and dark eye-lines. Wings are plain olive-brown. It hides in dense thickets, where it forages on the ground looking for insects, spiders, and caterpillars.

● Song: "whee-whee-whee, whip-poor-will", "chip"

● Foraging & Feeding: Swainson's Warbler: Eats insects, millipedes, and spiders; forages in shrubs and trees or on the ground, walking and slowly turning over leaves with its bill.

● Breeding & nesting: Swainson's Warbler: Two to five white eggs, sometimes with brown speckles, are laid in a nest made of leaves, pine needles, mammal hair, grass, Spanish moss, and rootlets, and built in a bush or vines, 2 to 10 feet above the ground. Incubation ranges from 13 to 15 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Swainson's Warbler: Worm-eating Warbler has shorter bill, buff head with two pairs of black stripes, and buff underparts.

Flight Pattern

Fairly swift short direct flights on rapidly beating wings.

Swainson's Warbler Breeding Male Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: Swainson's Warbler: In southeast U.S., lives in canebrakes and thickets in swamps and among hardwoods; in the southern Appalachians it is found in laurel and rhododendron thickets of moist, montane forests.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationUncommon in swamps & moist woodlands.

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.7 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America