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Orange-crowned Warbler | Leiothlypis celata
Oranjekruinzanger | Reinita coroninaranja
The Orange-crowned Warbler is a plain greyish-green wood-warbler breeding from Alaska and Canada to the western United States. Most birds winter in the southern United States, Mexico and northern Central America. The Caribbean lies outside the normal wintering range; only in the northern Bahamas and Cuba does the species appear with some regularity. The orange crown patch that gives it its name is rarely seen in the field.
Voice
The call is a distinctive hard, metallic chet, sharper than in most other warblers. The song, rarely heard in the region, is a loose trill that weakens and changes pitch at the end.
Recording: Ed Pandolfino — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
12–13 cm, with a fine, pointed bill. Upperparts olive-green to greyish green, underparts yellowish olive with faint, blurry streaks on the breast. A dark eye-line, a narrow pale supercilium and a broken pale eye-ring give the face a faint pattern. The undertail coverts are yellow. Birds of the eastern subspecies celata, the form most expected in the region, are greyer and duller, often with a greyish head. The orange crown patch is usually hidden and absent in many immatures.
Confusion species
Tennessee Warbler Leiothlypis peregrina has white undertail coverts, a shorter tail, a more distinct supercilium and an unstreaked breast. Female Common Yellowthroats Geothlypis trichas have a yellow throat contrasting with a paler belly and stay low in dense cover. Female American Yellow Warblers Setophaga aestiva are yellower, with a round dark eye in a plain face and yellow tail spots.
Habitat
Scrub, coastal woodland, dry forest, gardens and thickets, often in dense, low vegetation. It forages low to mid-level for insects, including in dead leaf clusters, and in winter takes berries and nectar.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
A rare winter visitor in the Bahamas, mainly on the northern islands (Grand Bahama, Abaco, New Providence), and in Cuba. A vagrant to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Breeds in Alaska, Canada and the western United States, and winters in the southern United States, Mexico and Guatemala.
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
The chance is greatest in winter in the northern Bahamas, in gardens and scrub with other wintering warblers. The hard chet call and the yellow undertail coverts on an otherwise plain greyish-green bird are the main clues.
Conservation status
Not threatened. A common and widespread species with a very large breeding range.
Scientific name
Leiothlypis celata | (Say, 1822)
Say described the species in 1822 as Sylvia celatus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Leiothlypis was introduced in 2008 by Sangster. Leiothlypis is Ancient Greek, from leios 'plain, smooth' and thlypis, an unidentified small bird mentioned by Aristotle. celata is Latin for 'concealed', after the orange crown patch usually hidden under the green feathers. The specimen the first description was based on came from near Omaha, Nebraska (USA).