A medium-sized (5-5 ½ inches) wood warbler, the male Pine Warbler is most easily identified by its olive-green back, yellow breast, and dark wings with conspicuous white wing bars. Female Pine Warblers are similar to males, but are somewhat duller. Many North American wood warblers are pale olive-green, but this species alone possesses this plumage in combination with white wing bars. The Pine Warbler breeds across much of the eastern United States and southern Canada, although its range is highly fragmented in much of the Midwest and interior northeast. In winter, northerly-breeding populations abandon their breeding grounds and spend the winter in the southeastern U.S. Populations breeding in the southeast are non-migratory, and isolated non-migratory populations also occur in the Bahamas and on the island of Hispaniola. Appropriately, Pine Warblers primarily breed in pine forests. Migratory populations move into similar habitats in winter as they utilized the summer before, and tropical populations are highly specific to pine barrens or mountain forests where isolated patches of suitable habitat occur. Pine Warblers primarily eat small invertebrates, including insects and spiders, although this species may eat some plant material, particularly fruits and berries, during the winter. In appropriate habitat, Pine Warblers may be observed foraging for food on pine needles and in bark crevices. Birdwatchers may also listen for this species’ song, a trilled “cheeeeeee.” Pine Warblers are primarily active during the day, but, like many songbirds, migratory populations migrate at night.
The pine warbler (Setophaga pinus) is a small songbird of the New World warbler family.
These birds have white bellies, two white wing bars, dark legs and thin, relatively long pointed bills; they have yellowish 'spectacles' around their eyes. Adult males have olive upperparts and bright yellow throats and breasts; females and immatures display upperparts which are olive-brown. Their throats and breasts are paler. The adult male pine warbler looks somewhat similar to the yellow-throated vireo which may cause some identification problems.
The song of this bird is a musical trill. Their calls are slurred chips.
Their breeding habitats are open pine woods in eastern North America. These birds are permanent residents in southern Florida. Some of them, however, migrate to northeastern Mexico and islands in Bermuda and the Caribbean. The first record for South America was a vagrant wintering female seen at Vista Nieve, Colombia, on 20 November 2002; this bird was foraging as part of a mixed-species feeding flock that also included wintering Blackburnian and Tennessee warblers.[4]
They forage slowly on tree trunks and branches by poking their bill into pine cones. These birds also find food by searching for it on the ground. These birds mainly eat insects, seeds and berries.
Their nests are deep, open cups, which are placed near the end of a tree branch. Pine warblers prefer to nest in pine trees, hence their names. Three to five blotched white eggs are laid.[2]
The pine warbler (Setophaga pinus) is a small songbird of the New World warbler family.
