Two Brilliant Warblers

By Al Lowe
Contributor

Most of the warblers, of which there are a lot around here, are usually dressed up in shades of green or yellow, with a bit of black or brown thrown in sometimes.
But there are two which have become quite different from the run-of-the-mill, being decked out in black, white and bright orange.
These are the Redstart and the Blackburnian Warbler.
The Redstart is one the handsomest of all of the warblers. A lot of its plumage is black - head, neck, back and most of its tail. Its under parts are mostly white, but the sides of the tail are bright orange. So are parts of its wings and some of its sides.
The male bird seems to know how good looking it is because it goes around a lot spreading that tail and those wings so that everyone can see the delightful colours.
The female has just about the same pattern, but in different colours. Where the male is black, the female is grey, and where he is orange, she is yellow. Also, she is more modest, and doesn't go around showing off.
This is probably one of the most numerous birds in North America. Then why don't we see them more often? For one thing, they usually don't arrive until most of the trees are already in leaf, so they tend to be somewhat hidden.
Also, the song of the male bird is almost a washout. Just a lisping, slurred "tsee-tsee-tsee-tsrr." It has some other songs too, but none of them are very remarkable. Since many people notice the song first, and then look for the bird, this may have a bearing.
Redstarts will start to move south in early September, or even earlier in Northwestern Ontario. They tend to migrate on a broad front, maybe over a thousand miles wide. Only when they are down in the States, do they tend to shift into the more regular migratory routes.
The Blackburnian Warlber is the other brightly-coloured one. Its back and other upper parts are mostly black, and it has a yellow stripe on its head. But its throat and breast are brilliant fiery orange, shading to orangey-yellow.
The female, again, has much of the same markings, but where the male is black, she is brownish, and where he is orange, she is yellow.
This is a bird of the evergreen forest. It makes its nest in pines, 70 or 80 feet above the ground, and it usually stays fairly high up in the trees to look for all those insects.
This is another bird which does not have a very spectacular song. A high-pitched trill, sort of thin and wiry, maybe ending in a buzz. It also has some other songs, none very impressive.
So there are our two flashy warblers, the Redstart (Setophaga rutillica) and the Blackburnian (Dendrica fusca). The males are certainly unmistakable and even the females are quite easy to identify.
Incidentally, you might wonder about that name - Blackburnian. Well, back in the late 1800's a specimen was sent to England from New York. It was examined and classified by a Mrs. Blackburn, who had never seen it before.
So it was given the name Blackburnian in her honour.