Conspicuously Yellow and Orange 
Blue-winged Warbler 
( HelminthopUla pinus) Wood Warbler family 
Called also: BLUE-WINGED YELLOW WARBLER 
Length — 4.75 inches. An inch and a half shorter than the Eng- 
lish sparrow. 
Male — Crown of head and all under parts bright yellow. Back 
olive-green. Wings and tail bluish slate, the former with 
white bars, and three outer tail quills with large white 
patches on their inner webs. 
Female — Paler and more olive. 
Range — Eastern United States, from southern New England and 
Minnesota, the northern limit of its nesting range, to Mexico 
and Central America, where it winters. 
Migrations — May. September. Summer resident. 
In the naming of warblers, bluish slate is the shade intended 
when blue is mentioned ; so that if you see a dainty little olive 
and yellow bird with slate-colored wings and tail hunting for 
spiders in the blossoming orchard or during the early autumn, 
you will have seen the beautiful blue-winged warbler. It has a 
rather leisurely way of hunting, unlike the nervous, restless flit- 
ting about from twig to twig that is characteristic of many of its 
many cousins. The search is thorough— bark, stems, blossoms, 
leaves are inspected for larvae and spiders, with many pretty 
motions of head and body. Sometimes, hanging with head 
downward, the bird suggests a yellow titmouse. After blossom 
time a pair of these warblers, that have done serviceable work in 
the orchard in their all too brief stay, hurry off to dense woods 
to nest. They are usually to be seen in pairs at all seasons. Not 
to “high coniferous trees in northern forests” — the Mecca of 
innumerable warblers — but to scrubby, second growth of wood- 
land borders, or lower trees in the heart of the woods, do these 
dainty birds retreat. There they build the usual warbler nest of 
twigs, bits of bark, leaves, and grasses, but with this peculiarity : 
the numerous leaves with which the nest is wrapped all have 
their stems pointing upward. Mr. Frank Chapman has admirably 
defined their song as consisting of “ two drawled, wheezy notes 
— swee-chee , the first inhaled, the second exhaled.” 
1 93 
