WESTERN BIRDS Wartler 



SUBGENUS DENDROICA: CALIFORNIA 

 YELLOW WARBLER. 



California Yellow Warbler: Dendroica cestiva 

 brewsteri. 



FAMILY— WOOD WARBLERS. 



One of the commonest, best known Warblers, during 

 the summer months, is the slender yellow bird which is 

 so often known as the Summer Bird, or Wild Canary, 

 but which is really the Yellow Warbler. 



It is a widely distributed North American species that 

 breeds east of Alaska and Pacific slope from the tree 

 limit south to Nevada, northern New Mexico, southern 

 Missouri, and northern South Carolina. It breeds in 

 most of its range, but goes as far south as Brazil and 

 Peru for the winter. In the west, southern Arizona, 

 New Mexico, and western Texas, a similar bird is called 

 the Sonora (D. a. sonorana) ; while west of the Cascade 

 and Sierra Nevada mountains from Washington to 

 southern California, it has been designated as the Cali- 

 fornia Yellow Warbler (Dendroica a^stiva brewsteri). 



Like most of the Warblers, it is about five inches in 

 length, and the prevailing color is a deep yellow, the 

 back, wings, and tail being a greenish yellow; the wings 

 edged with lighter yellow, and the inner vanes of tail a 

 light yellow; the bright breast of the male is streaked 

 with rufous. The female is less bright and has few 

 markings on breast; young similar but without under 

 markings. 



Not only is this bird one of the gayest plumaged, but 

 it is also one of the most friendly, coming to the orchards, 

 shade trees, parks, and along the streams, to build, where 

 it flits about in the open, or from tree to tree, keeping 



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