302 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
Genus SETOPHAGA Swainson 
Setophaga ruticilla (Linn.). 
American Redstart. 
Description ( Plate 43 ). 
Length about 5£ ; extent about 8 inches ; bill and legs black. 
Male. —Prevailing color glossy black ; the belly and under tail-coverts white; 
sides of breast, large space at base of quills and basal half of tail-feathers, except 
middle pair which are black on inner webs, and axillaries orange red; sides and 
belly often tinged with orange-red; terminal third of tail and wings, except as de¬ 
scribed previously, blackish. 
“ Female with the black replaced by grayish-olive above, by brownish-white be¬ 
neath ; the head tinged with ash ; a grayish-white lore and ring round the eye; 
the red of the male replaced by yellow.” Young male similar to adult female but 
browner above, the yellow more of a reddish hue ; immature males are often seen 
with glossy black feathers singly or in patches. Two or three years are, it is said, 
required before this bird gains its perfect plumage. 
Habitat. —North America, north to Fort Simpson, west regularly to the Great 
Basin, casually to the Pacific coast, breeding from the middle portion of the United 
States northward. In winter, the West Indies, and from southern Mexico through 
Central America to northern South America. 
The Redstart during- migrations—May and September—is abundant 
and very generally distributed throughout the state. Although found 
in all sections of our commonwealth as a summer resident, as such it 
is much more numerous in the northern parts and mountainous regions 
than elsewhere. In the counties of Erie, Crawford, Lycoming, Blair, Cen¬ 
tre, Sullivan, Potter, McKean, and in fact in nearly all the higher moun¬ 
tainous regions, it is a rather common breeder, but in Chester, Dela¬ 
ware, Bucks and Lancaster counties it is seldom found breeding. Fre¬ 
quents chiefly forests, but often, in company with other warblers, visits 
fruit and shade trees about houses, lawns and parks. The male, in his 
showy dress of black, fiery orange and white, is one of the most attrac¬ 
tive inhabitants of the woods. Like a flycatcher, he darts from his 
perch with clicking bill to secure flying insects. In addition to their 
sharp and rapid song, these birds when hopping about the trees, fre¬ 
quently spread their tails; this peculiar habit of opening and closing 
the tail will often aid you in recognizing a Redstart, in the tops of high 
trees, when it otherwise might be unknown. The nest, a compact, cup- 
shaped structure, composed of various vegetable fibers, spiders’ webs, 
and horse hair, is built in the fork or on the horizontal limb of a small 
tree, six to twenty-five feet from the ground. The eggs, mostly four, 
are grayish-white or light greenish-white, thinly speckled or blotched 
with brown and purplish. They measure about .63 long by .50 wide. 
The Redstart feeds exclusively on an insect diet, consisting chiefly of 
flies, spiders, plant-lice, butterflies, beetles and different larvse. 
