Golden-crowned warbler


The golden-crowned warbler is a small New World warbler.

Distribution and habitat

It breeds from Mexico and south through Central America to northeastern Argentina and Uruguay, and on Trinidad. It is mainly a species of lowland forests.

Description

The golden-crowned warbler is long and weighs. It has grey-green upperparts and bright yellow underparts. The head is grey with a black-bordered yellow crown stripe, a yellow or white supercilium and a black eyestripe. Sexes are similar, but the immature golden-crowned warbler is duller, browner and lacks the head pattern other than the eyestripe.

Taxonomy

Golden-crowned warbler has 13 geographical races, which fall into three groups. The Central American culicivorus group is essentially as described above, the southwestern cabanisi group has grey upperparts and a white supercilium, and the aureocapillus group of the southeast, which has a white supercilium and orange-rufous crown stripe. The three groups are sometimes considered to be different species.

Behaviour

These birds feed on insects and spiders. The song is a high thin pit-seet-seet-seet-seet, and the call is a sharp tsip. It lays two to four rufous-spotted white eggs in a domed nest in a bank, often by a forest path, or under leaves on the forest floor. Parent birds will feign injury to distract potential nest predators.