Conspicuously Yellow and Orange 



Blackburnian Warbler 



(Dendroica blackburnice) 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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