The Magnolia Warbler 



No. 84 



Magnolia Warbler 



A. O. U. No. 657. Dendroica magnolia (Wilson). 



Description. — Adult male in breeding plumage: Crown and nape bluish gray 

 (nearly clear Payne's gray); upper back and sides of cervix, continuous with broad 

 facial band, involving eye and meeting fellow on forehead, black, faintly lustrous; a 

 white superciliary half-stripe separating black and gray, and continuous with white upper 

 eyelid; lower eyelid also white; rump yellow, shading as an overlay upon lower back; 

 some yellow or olivaceous skirtings also on scapulars; upper tail-coverts abruptly black; 

 quills and rectrices with narrow edgings of bluish gray; a large irregular blotch of white 

 formed by tips of middle, with tips and outer edges of greater wing-coverts; tail- 

 feathers, except middle pair, with square white blotches, involving middle third of 

 inner webs; lining of wings and lower tail-coverts and middle of belly, narrowly, white; 

 remaining underparts yellow (orange-chrome to pyrite yellow), clear on throat and 

 upper abdomen, heavily and broadly streaked with black on jugulum, sides of breast, 

 and sides, the streaks tending to become confluent in two or three large stripes on sides 

 of breast, and to form a large black patch on chest. Bill blackish; feet dark brown. 

 Adult male in autumn: Similar to spring male, but black of head almost entirely re- 

 placed by gray or olive-gray; supra-auricular stripe of white wanting; back washed with 

 warbler green, and black persisting only as central spots on scapulars; wing-blotches 

 reduced and divided by black so that two narrow white wing-bars appear; black strip- 

 ing of underparts much reduced and often wanting on chest. Adult female in spring: 

 Like adult male but duller; back washed with warbler green; black of back present, if 

 at all, as irruptive spots; black of face usually much reduced; white wing-blotch also 

 reduced in area; yellow of underparts paler and duller, the black striping much reduced, 

 or, rarely, wanting. Immature birds suffer still further reduction of black, which per- 

 sists only as stripes on lower flanks and across abdomen; chest crossed by dull band of 

 olive-gray. Length of adult males (skins): 113.6 (4.47); wing 60.1 (2.37); tail 48.7 

 (1.92); bill 9 (.36); tarsus 17.8 (70). Females slightly smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Small warbler size; below rich yellow, heavily streaked 

 with black, distinctive in spring, save in comparison with D. townsendi, from which 

 magnolia is further distinguished by its yellow throat (instead of black), blue-gray crown 

 (instead of black), white line above and behind eye (in place of yellow), black back (in- 

 stead of warbler green), and by its greater posterior extension of yellow below. Square 

 white spots on central third of tail-feathers distinctive in any plumage. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: Of twigs, grass, and rootlets; 

 lined, or not, with hair; placed at any height in coniferous trees. Eggs: 3 to 5; white, 

 spotted and blotched, often wreathed or capped with chocolate (cameo brown to 

 blackish brown of the same hue) and vinaceous. Av. size, 16.5 x 12.2 (.65 x .48). 



General Range. — Eastern North America. Breeds in Canadian and Upper 

 Transition zones from southwestern Mackenzie, northern Quebec and Newfoundland, 

 south to Alberta, northern Minnesota, Michigan, New York, and New England, and 

 in the mountains south to Virginia. Winters from southern Mexico to Panama and 

 rarely in the Antilles. In migrations west to the Rocky Mountains, and casually to the 

 Pacific Coast. 



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