FAMILY PARULIDAE 



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Jr., collected it there and at Boquete between 1200 and 2310 m (Bangs, 

 Proc. New England Zool. Club, vol. 3, 1902, p. 60). Elsewhere in 

 Chiriqui, it has been taken by Frank Hartman at Santa Clara ( 1230 m) , 

 by M. E. Davidson at Barriles (1350 m), and by Griscom at Cerro 

 Flores ( 1200 m) . Ridgely (in lift. ) found it fairly common at Eortuna 

 between 1000 and 1050 m in February-March 1976; it was replaced by 

 B. tristriatus at higher elevations, but was not as common as that species. 

 On the western slope of the Azuero Peninsula, Aldrich and Bole 

 (Scient. Publ. Cleveland Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 7, 1937, pp. 25-26) 

 found this species uncommon in rain forest from 300 to 900 m and in 

 cloud forest above 900 m. Arce collected it in Veraguas at Calovevora 

 (Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1870, p. 183). 



The Golden-crowned Warbler inhabits forest and woodland, where 

 it usually forages from the shrubbery up to about 7 m. It is often in 

 pairs or little flocks, and regularly accompanies the small mixed flocks 

 of the understory. At El Volcan, Chiriqui, on February 7, 1955, I saw 

 a small scattered flock on a heavily wooded ridge of Cerro Picacho at 

 1740 m. The birds moved with twitching tails through the smaller 

 branches of the higher levels; in silhouette they were like the migrant 

 warblers from the north. The call was a low chipping note. Slud ( Bull. 

 Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. vol. 128, 1964, p. 334) describes the song as 

 "three 'wee's on the same level, followed by three consecutively rising 

 'wee's, with the last one accentuated. Usually, however, only the last 

 three or so notes are given as an accelerating little crescendo or an un- 

 musical 'chip-chip-chirk' lacking the 'wee' quality." Buskirk et al. 

 (Auk, 1972, p. 620) found that at Cerro Punta, Chiriqui, Golden- 

 crowned Warblers regularly joined mixed flocks but showed only mod- 

 erate tendencies to follow them. 



Nothing is known of this species' breeding behavior in Panama, but 

 Skutch (Publ. Nutt. Orn. Club., no. 7, 1967, pp. 150-154) has found 

 a nest in Costa Rica, where this race also occurs. The nest was a globu- 

 lar structure about 14 cm in diameter with a round opening on the side; 

 it was set on the ground, hidden amid fallen leaves and twigs, in a 

 fairly open forest. The outer surface of the nest was made of black 

 rootlets, with additions of green moss, strips from the leaves of palms 

 and branching stems of foliose liverworts; the thick inner cup was of 

 very fine, brownish fibers. When Skutch found the nest on April 15, 

 1964, it contained three eggs; they were white with a heavy wreath of 

 dark brown blotches around the broadest part and a scattering of paler 

 brown spots on the rest of the surface. Their measurements were 17.9 X 

 14.1, 17.8X 13.8, and 18.7X 14.9 mm. 



