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Cape May Warbler | Setophaga tigrina
Tijgerzanger | Reinita atigrada
The Cape May Warbler is one of the few North American warblers whose wintering range lies almost entirely in the Caribbean. It is the only warbler with a tubular, fringed tongue, which it uses in winter to take nectar from flowers and juice from ripe fruit. It is therefore often found in flowering trees, where it chases off other visitors.
Voice
The call is a thin, high tsip, the flight call a slightly longer see. The song, a series of very high, even see-see-see-see notes, is occasionally heard on the islands in spring.
Recording: Stanislas Wroza — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
12–14 cm, with a short tail and a thin, pointed, slightly decurved bill. The breeding male has a chestnut cheek patch, yellow neck sides, a large white wing panel and black-streaked yellow underparts. In winter the male is duller, but the yellow neck sides and dense breast streaking remain visible. Females and young birds are grey-green with a pale yellowish neck patch, finely streaked whitish to yellowish underparts, a pale supercilium and an olive-yellow rump. Young birds can be grey with almost no yellow.
Confusion species
Magnolia Warbler Setophaga magnolia has a white tail band and a grey head with a white eye-ring. Yellow-rumped Warbler Setophaga coronata is larger, with a bright yellow rump, yellow flank patches and a white throat. Palm Warbler Setophaga palmarum constantly pumps its tail and has yellow undertail coverts. Prairie Warbler Setophaga discolor has a yellow face with dark cheek markings and streaks only on the flanks.
Habitat
Almost anywhere with flowering or fruiting trees: dry and moist forest, pine forest, coastal woodland, citrus and other orchards, parks, hotel grounds and gardens in villages and towns. In winter it takes much nectar and fruit juice in addition to insects, and in gardens comes to sugar water and flowering shrubs.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Common winter visitor in the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Scarcer to the south: scarce to rare in the Lesser Antilles, rare in the ABC Islands and Trinidad and Tobago. Breeds in the spruce forests of Canada and the northern United States.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Flowering trees in gardens and parks, such as African tulip tree and coral tree, are the best places, especially in the morning. A warbler aggressively defending flowers against hummingbirds and other visitors is often this species.
Conservation status
Not threatened. As in Bay-breasted Warbler, numbers fluctuate strongly with spruce budworm outbreaks on the breeding grounds.
Scientific name
Setophaga tigrina | (Gmelin, 1789)
Gmelin described the species in 1789 as Motacilla tigrina; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Setophaga was introduced in 1827 by Swainson. Setophaga is Greek, from sēs, sētos 'moth' and -phagos '-eating': 'moth-eater'. tigrina is Latin for 'tiger-striped', after the black streaks on the yellow breast. The specimen the first description was based on came from Canada (not specified further).