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Ovenbird | Seiurus aurocapilla
Ovenvogel | Reinita hornera
The Ovenbird is a wood-warbler that behaves like a small thrush, walking with measured steps over the forest floor with its tail slightly cocked and its head bobbing. The name refers to the nest, a domed structure of leaves and grass on the ground with a side entrance, like an old-fashioned oven. In winter it is one of the commonest North American warblers in the forests of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas.
Voice
The call on the wintering grounds is a dry, sharp chock or chip, often repeated when disturbed. The song, given on the breeding grounds and sometimes in spring on the islands, is a loud, crescendoing series tee-CHER tee-CHER tee-CHER.
Recording: Jeff Stewart — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
14–16 cm, a fairly robust warbler with a short tail and pink legs. Upperparts plain olive-green. The crown has an orange stripe bordered on each side by a black stripe. A distinctive white eye-ring gives a large-eyed look. Underparts white, with black streaks on the breast and flanks and a black malar stripe. The sexes are alike; in winter the crown stripe can be duller.
Confusion species
Northern Waterthrush Parkesia noveboracensis and Louisiana Waterthrush Parkesia motacilla have a long white or buffy supercilium instead of an eye-ring, browner upperparts and no orange crown stripe; they bob the whole rear body. Swainson's Thrush Catharus ustulatus and Wood Thrush Hylocichla mustelina are larger, with spotted rather than streaked underparts and no crown stripe.
Habitat
The floor of moist and dry broadleaf forest, limestone forest, montane forest, pine forest with understorey, coastal woodland and shade-coffee plantations, wherever there is a thick leaf-litter layer. It walks through the litter in search of insects, spiders, snails and other invertebrates. Wintering birds hold individual territories and often return to the same site year after year.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
A 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. Less common to scarce southwards through the Lesser Antilles; rare on Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago and the ABC Islands. Also on San Andrés. Breeds in Canada and the eastern United States and winters from Florida and Mexico to Panama, northern South America and the Caribbean.
- 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
Best found by standing still on a forest trail with plenty of leaf litter and listening for the dry chock; the bird often then walks calmly into view. Forest reserves with good litter cover in Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola are productive.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The population is large and fairly stable. Fragmentation of forest on the breeding grounds and forest loss in the wintering range have local effects.
Scientific name
Seiurus aurocapilla | (Linnaeus, 1766)
Linnaeus described the species in 1766 as Motacilla aurocapilla; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Seiurus was introduced in 1827 by Swainson. Seiurus is Greek, from seiouros 'wag-tail', after the constant tail-bobbing. aurocapilla is Latin, from aurum 'gold' and -capillus '-crowned', after the orange crown stripe. The specimen the first description was based on came from Pennsylvania.