Conspicuously Yellow and Orange 
Blackburnian Warbler 
(Dendroica blackburnia) Wood Warbler family 
Called also: HEMLOCK WARBLER; ORANGE-THROATED 
WARBLER; TORCH-BIRD 
Length—4.5 to 5.5 inches. An inch and a half smaller than the 
English sparrow. 
Male—Head black, striped with orange-flame; throat and breast 
orange, shading through yellow to white underneath; wings, 
tail, and part of back black, with white markings. 
Female—Olive-brown above, shading into yellow on breast, and 
paler under parts. 
Range—Eastern North America to plains. Winters in tropics. 
Migrations—May. September. Spring and autumn migrant. 
“The orange-throated warbler would seem to be his right 
name, his characteristic cognomen,” says John Burroughs, in ever- 
delightful “Wake Robin”; “but no, he is doomed to wear the 
name of some discoverer, perhaps the first who robbed his nest 
or rifled him of his mate—Blackburn; hence, Blackburnian 
warbler. The burn seems appropriate enough, for in these dark 
evergreens his throat and breast show like flame. He has a very 
fine warble, suggesting that of the redstart, but not especially 
musical.” 
No foliage is dense enough to hide, and no autumnal tint too 
brilliant to outshine this luminous little bird that in May, as it 
migrates northward to its nesting ground, darts in and out of the 
leafy shadows like a tongue of fire. 
It is by far the most glorious of all the warblers—a sort of 
diminutive oriole. The quiet-colored little mate flits about after 
him, apparently lost in admiration of his fine feathers and the 
ease with which his thin tenor voice can end his lover’s warble in 
a high Z. 
Take a good look at this attractive couple, for in May they 
leave us to build a nest of bark and moss in the evergreens of 
Canada—that paradise for warblers—or of the Catskills and Adiron- 
dacks, and in autumn they hurry south to escape the first frosts. 
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