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Nashville Warbler | Leiothlypis ruficapilla
Nashvillezanger | Reinita de Nashville | Mariquita-de-nashville
The Nashville Warbler is a small warbler with a grey head, a prominent white eye-ring and yellow underparts, which breeds in North America and winters mainly in Mexico and northern Central America. In the guide area it is a very rare vagrant, far south of its normal wintering range.
Voice
The song, rarely heard in winter quarters, has two parts: a series of high see-bit see-bit see-bit notes, followed by a rapid trill. The call is a sharp, metallic spink.
Recording: Ed Pandolfino — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
11–12 cm, with a short tail and a fine bill. The head is blue-grey with a complete, crisp white eye-ring; the back and wings are olive-green without wing-bars. The throat, breast and undertail are yellow, with a whitish patch between the legs. The male has a rufous crown patch, which is usually concealed. Females and young birds are duller, with a greyish-olive head and a less bright eye-ring.
Confusion species
Connecticut Warbler Oporornis agilis and Mourning Warbler Geothlypis philadelphia are larger, with a grey or brownish-grey hood extending onto the breast, so the throat is not yellow, and live low in dense thickets. Tennessee Warbler Leiothlypis peregrina has a supercilium and eye-line instead of an eye-ring, and white undertail coverts.
Habitat
In winter quarters in forest edges, scrub, secondary forest and gardens, mainly in drier and semi-open country. It searches the lower and middle canopy for insects and joins mixed flocks. It does not breed in the guide area.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In the guide area only a few scattered records in the north. It has no regular occurrence in any country; vagrants are most likely in northern Colombia. Outside the guide area it breeds in southern Canada and the northern and western United States, and winters from the southern United States to Guatemala and Honduras.
How and when to look
A Nashville Warbler in the guide area is most likely between October and April in mixed flocks along forest edges in northern Colombia. Look for the combination of grey head, white eye-ring and yellow throat.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species has a large breeding range and a stable population.
Scientific name
Leiothlypis ruficapilla | (Wilson, 1811)
Wilson described the species in 1811 as Sylvia ruficapilla; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Leiothlypis was introduced in 2008 by Sangster. The genus name combines Greek leios, 'plain, smooth', with thlupis, an unidentified small bird mentioned by Aristotle. The species name combines Latin rufus, 'rufous', and -capillus, '-haired, -capped', after the rufous crown patch. The specimen the first description was based on came from near Nashville, Tennessee, United States.