Pine Warblers of the Forests

Our Seed Eating Warbler

The Pine Warbler is a beautiful yellow and olive green bird that inhabits Pine forests all over the United States. In the south, these birds are permanent residents, but in the north, they migrate south in winter. Because they are the only Warbler that eats large amounts of (primarily) Pine seeds, they will visit seed and suet feeders, especially in winter. Come and learn more about the lovely and interesting Pine Warbler.

Pine Warblers

brighten a winter day with their yellow breasts, cheery attitude and their amusing antics.

Pine Warblers are Unique Warblers

Pine Warblers are unique among Warblers. It is the only Warbler that eats large quantities of pine seeds, so like the Brown-headed Nuthatch, its habitat is Pine Forests. It can also be seen visiting seed and suet feeders. Northern Pine Warblers migrate to the south to join the resident southern birds. Sometimes they will form large mixed flocks of 50 or more. They are also the first warbler to return north in the spring and breed the earliest of any warbler in the north. Pine Warblers forage among the leaves and branches of trees.

Their nest is built high in pine trees and consists of a deep cup of grass, pine needles, twigs, and plant fibers bound together with spider web or caterpillar silk, lined with fine plant parts, hair and feathers. In the south, they start nest building in late February and March.

Description and Song

Size: 13-14 cm (5-6 in)
Wingspan: 19-23 cm (7-9 in)
Weight: 9-15 g (0.32-0.53 ounces)
Small songbird but large for a warbler.
Yellow throat and chest with dark streaks on the sides.
Two white wingbars.
White belly and under tail.
Olive green upper parts.
Plain back with no streaking. Inconspicuous eye crescents.
Yellow lores; may give impression of yellow spectacles.
Small dark bill, but large for a warbler.
Dark legs.
White spots on the outer three tail feathers.
Occasionally pumps its tail.

Males are more colorful that females. Immature birds look like females, but are duller in color.

Reference: All About Birds

Song
Listen to the song of the Pine Warbler (from the PWRC.USGS).

Field Guide to Warblers

A Field Guide to Warblers of North America (Peterson Field Guide Series)

by: Kimball Garrett, Jon Dunn

Amazon Price: $13.60 (as of 07/06/2009)

Pine Warblers on Wiki

The Pine Warbler, Dendroica pinus, is a small songbird of the New World warbler family.

These birds have white bellies, white wing bars, dark legs and thin, relatively long pointed bills; they have yellowish lines over their eyes. Adult males have olive upperparts and bright yellow throats and breasts; females and immatures display upperparts which are olive-brown. Their throats and breasts are paler.

The song of this bird is a musical trill. Their calls are slurred chips.

Category: File - :Pine Warbler - female.jpg|thumb|left|Female

Their breeding habitats are open pine woods in eastern North America. These birds are permanent residents in southern Florida. Some of them, however, migrate to northeastern Mexico and islands in the Caribbean. The first record for South America was a vagrant wintering female seen at Vista Nieve, Colombia, on 20 November 2002; this bird was foraging as part of a mixed-species feeding flock that also included wintering Blackburnian and Tennessee WarblersStrewe & Navarro (2004).

They forage slowly on tree trunks and branches by poking their bill into pine cones. These birds also find food by searching for it on the ground. These birds mainly eat insects, seeds and berries.

Their nests are deep, open cups, which are placed near the end of a tree branch. Pine Warblers prefer to nest in pine trees, hence their names.

read the rest of the Wikipedia article

Winter Pine Warbler by naturegirl7