Conspicuously Yellow and Orange 



Redstart 



(Setophaga ruticilla) Wood Warbler family 



Called also: YELLOW -TAILED WARBLER 



Length— <y to 5.5 inches. 



Male — In spring plumage: Head, neck, back, and middle breast 

 glossy black, with blue reflections. Breast and underneath 

 white, slightly flushed with salmon, increasing to bright 

 salmon-orange on the sides of the body and on the wing 

 linings. Occasional specimens show orange-red. Tail feath- 

 ers partly black, partly orange, with broad black band across 

 the end. Orange markings on wings. Bill and feet black. 

 In autumn : Fading into rusty black, olive, and yellow. 



Female — Olive-brown, and yellow where the male is orange. 

 Young browner than the females. 



Range — North America to upper Canada. West occasionally, as 

 far as the Pacific coast, but commonly found in summer in 

 the Atlantic and Middle States. 



Migrations — Early May. End of September. Summer resident. 



Late some evening, early in May, when one by one the birds 

 have withdrawn their voices from the vesper chorus, listen for 

 the lingering " 'tsee, 'tsee/tseet " (usually twelve times repeated 

 in a minute), that the redstart sweetly but rather monotonously 

 sings from the evergreens, where, as his tiny body burns in the 

 twilight, Mrs. Wright likens him to a "wind-blown firebrand, 

 half glowing, half charred." 



But by daylight this brilliant little warbler is constantly on 

 the alert. It is true he has the habit, like the flycatchers (among 

 which some learned ornithologists still class him), of sitting pen- 

 sively on a branch, with fluffy feathers and drooping wings; but 

 the very next instant he shows true warbler blood by making a 

 sudden dash upward, then downward through the air, tumbling 

 somersaults, as if blown by the wind, flitting from branch to 

 branch, busily snapping at the tiny insects hidden beneath the 

 leaves, clinging to the tree-trunk like a creeper, and singing 

 between bites. 



Possibly he will stop long enough in his mad chase to open 

 and shut his tail, fan-fashion, with a dainty egotism that, in the 

 peacock, becomes rank vanity. 



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