Conspicuously Yellow and Orange 



Blue-winged Warbler 



( Helminthophila pinus) Wood Warbler family 



Called also : 'Q\JJE-\N\HGhD YELLOW WARBLER 



Length — 4.75 inches. An inch and a half shorter than the Eng- 

 lish sparrow. 



Male — Crown of head and all under parts bright yellow. Back 

 olive-green. Wings and tail bluish slate, the former with 

 white bars, and three outer tail quills with large white 

 patches on their inner webs. 



Female — Paler and more olive. 



Range — Eastern United States, from southern New England and 

 Minnesota, the northern limit of its nesting range, to Mexico 

 and Central America, where it winters. 



Migrations — May. September. Summer resident. 



In the naming of warblers, bluish slate is the shade intended 

 when blue is mentioned ; so that if you see a dainty little olive 

 and yellow bird with slate-colored wings and tail hunting for 

 spiders in the blossoming orchard or during the early autumn, 

 you will have seen the beautiful blue-winged warbler. It has a 

 rather leisurely way of hunting, unlike the nervous, restless flit- 

 ting about from twig to twig that is characteristic of many of its 

 many cousins. The search is thorough— bark, stems, blossoms, 

 leaves are inspected for larvse and spiders, with many pretty 

 motions of head and body. Sometimes, hanging with head 

 downward, the bird suggests a yellow titmouse. After blossom 

 time a pair of these warblers, that have done serviceable work in 

 the orchard in their all too brief stay, hurry off to dense woods 

 to nest. They are usually to be seen in pairs at all seasons. Not 

 to "high coniferous trees in northern forests" — the Mecca of 

 innumerable warblers — but to scrubby, second growth of wood- 

 land borders, or lower trees in the heart of the woods, do these 

 dainty birds retreat. There they build the usual warbler nest of 

 twigs, bits of bark, leaves, and grasses, but with this peculiarity : 

 the numerous leaves with which the nest is wrapped all have 

 their stems pointing upward. Mr. Frank Chapman has admirably 

 defined their song as consisting of " two drawled, wheezy notes 

 — swee-chee, the first inhaled, the second exhaled." 



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