Dendroica pensylvanica

Description

They have a yellow crown, chestnut sides, white underparts, and a black moustache stripe on the face. They also have two pale yellow wing bars and a white eye-ring. They often cock their tail up over their back, similar to a gnatcatcher or a wren.

Voice

Their song sounds like please please pleased to meet’cha with the second to last notes accented and the last note dropping. They also have more randomly arranged songs.

Habitat

They occupy undergrowth, overgrown field edges, and small trees.

Diet

They mainly eat insects and other arthropods, but will also occasionally eat fruit.

Range

They breed in southern Canada, down into the northeastern US and south into the Appalachians as far as northern Georgia. They winter in Central America, from southern Mexico to Panama.

Other Useful Information

The chestnut-sided warbler sings two basic song types: one is accented at the end and the other is not. The accented songs are usually sung to attract females and the unaccented songs are sung to defend territories against other aggressive males. Males that can only sing the unaccented song are less successful at attracting mates than males that sing both songs.

Similar Species

Bay-breasted warbler.