Summary 



The Swainson's Warbler is one of the least known of southern 

 birds. Studies of its life history and ecology were made by the 

 author principally in canebrakes along the Ocmulgee River a few 

 miles south of Macon, Ga., and near Pendleton Ferry, Ark., in 

 deciduous thickets in the Dismal Swamp, Va., in scrub palmetto in 

 Monkey John Swamp, S.C. ; and in mountain cove hardwoods near 

 Charleston, W. Va. 



The Swainson's Warbler was described by Audubon from 

 specimens collected. by John Bachman on the banks of the Edisto 

 River in South Carolina in 1832 or 1833. John Abbot, a Georgia 

 naturalist, collected a specimen some 25 years earlier but made 

 no record of the event. However, he made an identifiable portrait 

 of the bird. His illustrations of birds were discovered many years 

 later in several museums. 



The Swainson*s Warbler spends nearly 6 months in the United 

 States. During this period (summer half of year) it is primarily 

 associated with the river floodplain forests and swamps of the 

 South Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain and the rich moist woods 

 of the Mixed Mesophytic forest of the Southern Appalachians. 



The main wintering ground is the Caribbean archipelago in the 

 general latitude of 20° N., especially the islands of Jamaica and 

 Cuba; individuals also winter in the Yucatan Peninsula and 

 British Honduras. 



Some migrants apparently fly across the Gulf, some around it. 

 First spring migrants reach the southern coast of the United 

 States usually by the last half of March or the first week in April. 

 Most birds are on the breeding grounds by April 15, but some 

 arrive by the first week in April. In the fall most have departed 

 from the breeding grounds by September 15. 



The optimum habitat is rich damp woods with deep shade, 

 moderately dense undergrowth, and relatively dry ground. Giant 

 cane, scrub palmetto, and sweet pepperbush are the most im- 

 portant plants of Coastal Plain breeeding grounds ; rhododendron 

 and cove hardwood shrubs are important in the mountains. 



In April 1968, I counted 19 territorial males along a 2-mile 

 transect through canebrakes near Macon, Ga. I found eight terri- 

 torial males along a 0.5-mile transect in the Dismal Swamp in 



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