Orange-crowned warblers have been plentiful on the Island this fall and early winter. This warbler was first reported on Oct. 14 this fall and we were still seeing it on Nov. 15. I realized I know very little about this dainty warbler so decided to do some research.
The Latin name is Oreothlypis celata. Celata loosely translated means concealed and that is definitely what that orange crown is. I have never seen that crown, nor do I know of anyone who has. This warbler is a study in shades of yellow-green with a bit of gray. It seems that we on the East Coast are visited by orange-crowned warblers that are the dullest in color. If we move west to California, the warbler is much brighter and yellow, although the orange crown is dark green in the California Channel Islands.
The orange crown is much more common in the western United States. It does not breed in the eastern U.S. but does so north of us in the Boreal Forest and across to Alaska and down in the Western States to Arizona and New Mexico. After breeding, this warbler migrates to the south and can be found on the East Coast from Delaware to Florida and also down through Mexico to Guatemala.
The female chooses a nest site which is close to the ground in bushes or in crevices or depressions in the ground or rocks. The nest is a cup shape and is made of a combination of moss, bark, weeds, rootlets and fine twigs. It is lined with fur of small animals or other soft materials. The female orange crown lays three to six whitish eggs with reddish speckles. Only the female incubates the eggs, but after they hatch both parents feed the young until they fledge.
The main food of this warbler are insects and spiders which they glean from the backs of leaves, sometimes hovering over the plant and capturing the insect on the wing if there is no perch available. Another technique the orange crown uses to find food is to poke around on the ground in weedy areas or under leaves to find prey.
It seems the orange-crowned warbler is one of the latest migrants. I always thought the presence of Blackpoll was an indication that warbler migration was over on the Vineyard, but it seems the orange crown is still migrating. Look for a warbler that is olive green on the back, has a very slight white eye-line and a hard to see broken white eye ring, a yellowish rump and very faint streaks on a yellow-green breast. Forget looking for that orange crown.
Bird Sightings
The bird of the week is a snowy owl that was seen on East Beach, Chappaquiddick by Versie Geary on Nov. 11. To my knowledge no one tried to find this bird again until Nov. 15 when five of us tried to no avail to find the owl. Snowy owls have been seen in other coastal areas down as far as New Jersey, so we may have another mini irruption this winter.
Happy Spongberg found a saw-whet owl on Nov. 12 that she spotted as she pulled out of her Tea Lane driveway around 7:15 p.m. Happy also noted that she counted six northern flickers on Tea Lane on Nov. 15.
Saskia Vanderhoop, David Vanderhoop and Preston Taylor have been trying to photograph and identify a large accipiter that has been hunting pheasants in the Lobsterville area since Nov. 11. They surmise that the bird is a goshawk, but other Vineyard birders feel it might be a large Cooper’s hawk. Hopefully, someone can get good photos of this bird from all angles.
Allan Keith found a late staying Blackpoll warbler at his Turtle Brook Farm property on Nov. 12. On Nov. 13, Allan birded the Katama area and his reports include many waterfowl including over 100 scaup species in Edgartown Great Pond. He spotted five northern harriers and two sharp-shinned hawks during his morning jaunt. Three northern flickers, two Eastern phoebes, three horned larks, six American pipits, five Western palm warblers, six Ipswich Savannah sparrows and 11 snow buntings were some of the other species Allan found. Allan added that he had two green-winged teals and a male wood duck on his pond on Nov. 16.
Also on Nov. 13, Bob Stymeist and Martha Steele came from Boston for three days of Vineyard birding. They crisscrossed the Island and also went to Chappaquiddick. The total for their trip was 102 species and this included American golden plover at Katama, American oystercatchers at Wasque, laughing and lesser black-backed gulls, barn and screech owls, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, American kestrel, merlin and peregrine falcons, brown thrasher, clay-colored sparrow and common yellowthroat. Bob considered the blue-headed vireo, Nashville warbler and four orange-crowned warblers interesting.
My feeder at Quenames hosted a red-winged blackbird on Nov. 12 , and a common grackle on Nov. 13.
On Nov. 15, Pete Gilmore, Allan Keith, Ken Magnuson, Lanny McDowell and I traveled to Chappaquiddick to try to find a snowy owl. We failed but did find 52 species, including long-tailed duck, common goldeneye, more red-throated than common loons, northern gannets, a great egret, a merlin, both laughing and Bonaparte’s gulls, horned larks, two snow buntings, a hermit thrush, an orange-crowned warbler and an odd plumage yellow-rumped warbler, to name a few of the best. This yellow-rumped warbler had us puzzled as it was in breeding plumage. It seems that this type of molt can happen; it is up to the individual. You learn something every day.
Ken Magnuson photographed a purple finch and a pine siskin that visited the Edgartown Golf Club feeder on Nov. 16. The same day, Sharon Simonin photographed hooded mergansers behind Maciel Marine in Tisbury.
Rick Cotter spotted and photographed a strange bird under his Bold Meadow, Edgartown home. It turned out to be a leucistic white-throated sparrow which had a large white patch on its head.
Please report your bird sightings to birds@mvgazette.com.
Susan B. Whiting is the co-author of Vineyard Birds and Vineyard Birds II. Her website is vineyardbirds2.com.
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