The Kentucky Warbler {oporomis formosus) 



By Lynds Jones 



Description — Adult male : Crown lustrous black, more or less tipped even 

 in highest plumage, at least behind, by obscure olive or grayish slate ; a bright 

 yellow line over eye and curling around it behind ; a black patch on side of head, 

 including, lores, produced downward on side of neck as though forming incipent 

 collar; remaining upper parts uniform olive-green; below gamboge yellow, pure 

 and continuous ; olive-shaded on sides ; bill slightly curved, dark above, light 

 below ; feet very pale. Adult female : Similar but with perceptibly less black on 

 head, because of more extensive grayish skirtings. Both sexes in winter -. The 

 back of the crown is further veiled and with brownish tips, while the black on 

 sides of "head is partially obscured in the same manner. Immature birds lack 

 the black on head or have it concealed in inverse ratio to age. Length 5.25-5.75 

 (133.3-146.1) ; wing 2.69 (68.3) ; tail 1.96 (49.8) ; bill .44 (11.2). 



Recognition Marks — Medium Warbler size. Pattern of black and yellow on 

 head distinctive, save as regards the "Maryland" Yellow-throat. It is larger and 

 more deliberate in its movements than the latter bird, and differs further in having 

 continuous yellow on the lower parts. 



Nest — A bulky affair of dead leaves and grasses, lined with rootlets, and 

 sometimes hair ; usually on the ground, concealed or not by overgrowth. Eggs, 4 

 or 5, sometimes 6, white or grayish white, speckled, spotted or blotched with 

 umber, cinnamon and lilac-gray, chiefly about larger end. Av. size, .73x. 58 

 (18.5x14.7). 



General Range — Eastern United States west to the plains, breeding from 

 the Gulf States north to southern New England and southern Michigan. In 

 winter. West Indies, eastern Mexico, and Central America to Panama. 



The local preferences of the Kentucky Warbler lie about midway between 

 those of the Oven-bird and the Louisiana Water Thrush ; and there is much in 

 the bird's appearance and manner to remind one of its near relationship to the 

 Sciuri. But the bird is no mere echo of another more illustrious ; its ways are 

 its own, and its personality most marked. Damp hillsides, heavily wooded and 

 with dense undergrowth, are the chosen haunts of this distinguished Warbler, 

 especially if at the bottom of the hill there is a half-open glade set about with 

 bush-clumps and a tiny stream of water trickling through it. Here the Warbler 

 seeks its food upon the ground, walking instead of hopping over its surface, 

 stooping to peer under a projecting stone, turning over a suspected leaf, and 

 nimbly gathering in the scurrying harvest. Now the bird flits up to a fallen 

 log and measures its length, now dives into a cranny behind it, and now 

 emerges again in time to leap into the air for a passing insect. Through long 

 association with mother earth the Kentucky Warbler has also acquired, tho 

 in a lesser degree, that strange bobbing motion of the tail, peculiar to many 

 ground-haunting species. 



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