Palm Warbler

Dendroica palmarum

Reinita Palmera

Audio (M. Oberle)

IDENTIFICATION: The Palm Warbler has yellow undertail coverts (the feathers under the base of the tail), an olive rump and a streaked breast. In breeding plumage, the male has a bright rusty cap and yellow undersides streaked with rufous. Length: 12-14 cm.; weight: 10-12 g.

VOICE: The call is a thin "seep." Audio (M. Oberle).

HABITAT: Mangroves, dry forest and brushy areas near coastal swamps.

HABITS: More than any other warbler, the Palm Warbler has the habit of pumping its tail up and down. It walks on the ground, or hops in low bushes as it feeds on insects and spiders. It also adds nectar to its diet in winter, and will protect a favorite flowering plant from other birds. It nests in bogs in northern North America. The female builds the nest in moss at the base of a tree and incubates the 4-5 eggs for 12 days by herself. Only the female broods the chicks, but both sexes feed the young. The young fledge about 11-13 days after hatching, but for the first few days after leaving the nest, the parents continue to feed the chicks. As with other warblers, this species migrates at night. Birds that winter in the Caribbean return north by flying up the Mississippi River Valley to Canada.

STATUS AND CONSERVATION: An uncommon and irregular winter visitor, but more common in some years than others. The speciesÆ overall population is probably stable, since its nesting habitat is not threatened.

RANGE: The Palm Warbler has two subspecies, only one of which (Western Palm Warbler, Dendroica palmarum palmarum) is found regularly in Puerto Rico. This subspecies breeds in boreal forests from western Canada, through northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, to eastern Ontario. It winters from the southeastern USA through the Bahamas and Greater Antilles, and on the Caribbean slope of Central America from Yucatán, Mexico, south to Costa Rica. A regular place to find this species is at the edge of mangroves in southwestern Puerto Rico.

TAXONOMY: PASSERIFORMES; PARULIDAE

References

Arendt, W.J. 1992. Status of North American migrant landbirds in the Caribbean region: a summary. Pp. 143-171 in Ecology and conservation of neotropical migrant landbirds (J.M. Hagan III and D.W. Johnston, eds.) Smithsonian Instit. Press, Washington, D.C.

Barnes, V., Jr. 1947. Additions to the Puerto Rica avifauna with notes on little-known species. Auk 64:400-406.

Bent, A.C. 1953. Life histories of North American wood warblers. Smithsonian Instit. U.S. National Museum Bull. 203. (Reprinted by Dover Press, NY, 1963).

Dunn, J. and K. Garrett. 1997. A field guide to warblers of North America. Houghton Mifflin, NY.

Post, W. 1978. Social and foraging behavior of warblers wintering in Puerto Rican coastal scrub. Wilson Bull. 90:197-214.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Princeton.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. Una guía a las aves de Puerto Rico y las Islas Vírgenes. Publishing Resources, Inc., Santurce, PR.

Raffaele, H.A., J.W. Wiley, O.H. Garrido, A.R. Keith, and J.I. Raffaele. 1998. Guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton.

Wilson, W. H., Jr. 1996. Palm Warbler (Dendroica palmarum). No. 238 in The birds of North America (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, PA, and Am. Ornithol. Union, Washington, D.C.

Wunderle, J.M., Jr. 1978. Territorial defense of a nectar source by a Palm Warbler. Auk 79:713-714.

Wunderle, J.M., Jr., and R.B. Waide. 1993. Distribution of overwintering nearctic migrants in the Bahamas and Greater Antilles. Condor 95:904-933.

Palm Warbler, Spanish text

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