Field Guide to Birds of North America
Verdin
General
Verdin: Very small songbird with gray upperparts and pale gray underparts. Face and throat are dull yellow; eye-lines are dark. Wings are gray with red-brown shoulder patches. Female is duller. Juvenile lacks yellow on face and throat, and red-brown shoulder patches.
Range and Habitat
Verdin: Resident in the deserts of southwestern North America, from southern California eastward to central Texas and southward to central Mexico. Frequents desert scrub, especially along washes where thorny vegetation is present.
Listen to Call
Voice Text
"tswee-swee, tswee", "tea-nip"
Interesting Facts
- The Verdin builds nests for both breeding and roosting; roosting nests are much smaller. The outer stick shell is constructed mostly by the male, while the female does most of the lining.
- The roosting nests help it stay warm in winter. Winter roosting nests have thicker insulation, and may reduce energy requirements for thermoregulation by as much as 50 percent. Nests built in summer open toward prevailing winds, perhaps to aid in cooling. At 4.5 inches in length, it rivals the Bushtit as one of the smallest passerines in North America.
Author
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Family
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Species
Auriparus flaviceps
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Length3.5 - 4.5
Inches
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Wingspan6.75
Inches
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Verdin
Verdin: Very small songbird with gray upperparts and pale gray underparts. Face and throat are dull yellow; eye-lines are dark. Wings are gray with red-brown shoulder patches. Black bill, legs and feet. It builds complex sphere-shaped nests using as many as two thousands small twigs.
● Song: "tswee-swee, tswee", "tea-nip"
● Foraging & Feeding: Verdin: Eats insects, their larvae and eggs, spiders, berries, and fruits; forages among twigs and leaves, sometimes hanging upside down like a chickadee or titmouse.
● Breeding & nesting: Verdin: Three to six pale to blue green eggs with red brown speckles are laid in a nest made of sticks, leaves, and grass, held together with spider webs and cocoons, lined with grass, feathers, and plant down, and built from 2 to 20 feet above the ground in a shrubby tree, cactus, or bush. Eggs are incubated for 10 days by the female.
● Similar species: Verdin: Lucy's Warbler resembles juvenile Verdin, but bill is thinner, dark, and without pink-yellow base. Bushtit has smaller, blunter bill and longer tail. Gnatcatchers have longer tails with black-and-white markings.
Flight Pattern
Somewhat weak fluttering flight with several fast shallow wing strokes followed by wings pulled in to sides, repeated. Flights often short duration, bush to bush.
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BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester
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Population
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MigrationNonmigratory
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Weight0.2
Ounces
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