Wilson's Warbler Part IV

BirdNote^®

Wilson’s Warbler, Part IV –
Whirlwind Courtship and Nesting

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote!
 [Wilson’s Warbler song, repeated]
 This brisk flurry of notes is the song of a male Wilson’s Warbler. The warbler sings from deep within a shrubby thicket, its choppy phrases penetrating the dense foliage to reach the ears of other Wilson’s Warblers.
 [Wilson’s Warbler song, repeated]
 Since last September, BirdNote has followed the Wilson’s Warbler’s seasonal journey to Belize and back. A diminutive bird feathered in warm yellow, head capped with black, the warbler actively searches out insects. It often flutters hummingbird-like in mid-air to glean prey from the undersides of leaves.
 A week of non-stop singing attracts a female to the male’s territory at the edge of the forest. The female alone builds a nest of dead leaves, bark strips, and stems, concealing it in mossy ground at the base of a shrub, or perhaps in a tussock of grass. She lays four eggs, which she incubates for 12 days. When the eggs hatch, both parents busily attend the fast-growing nestlings. Remarkably, the young leave the nest less than two weeks after being born. The parents then tend them for another week. After that, they’re on their own. Talk about a brief childhood!  [Wilson’s Warbler song, repeated]
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Call of the Wilson’s Warbler provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by T.G. Sander.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2007 Tune In to Nature.org           Revised for May 2009

ID# 050407WIWA4-4    WIWA-04