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Golden-winged warbler

Golden-winged warbler
Golden-winged Warbler NGM-v31-p308-C.jpg
Male and Female birds
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Parulidae
Genus: Vermivora
Species: V. chrysoptera
Binomial name
Vermivora chrysoptera
(Linnaeus, 1766)
Vermivora chrysoptera map.svg
Range of V. chrysoptera      Breeding range     Wintering range
Synonyms

Helmintophila chrysoptera: Ridgway 1882


Helmintophila chrysoptera: Ridgway 1882

The golden-winged warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) is a New World warbler. It breeds in southeastern and south-central Canada and the Appalachian Mountains northeastern to north-central United States. The majority (~70%) of the global population breeds in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Manitoba. Golden-winged warbler populations are slowly expanding northwards, but are generally declining across its range, most likely as a result of habitat loss and competition/interbreeding with the very closely related blue-winged warbler, Vermivora cyanoptera.

The genus name Vermivora is from Latin vermis "worm", and vorare, "to devour", and the specific chrysoptera is from Ancient Greek khrusos, "gold", and pteron, "wing".

This is a small warbler, measuring 11.6 cm (4.6 in) long and weighing 8–10 g (0.28–0.35 oz). The male has black throat (suggestive of the throat patch of a chickadee), black ear patch bordered in white, yellow crown and wing patch. Females feature a similar coloration pattern, but the black is replaced with light grey. In both sexes, extensive white on the tail is conspicuous from below. Underparts are grayish white and the bill is long and slender. Unlike most warblers, juveniles can be reliably sexed (using throat patch color) approximately 15 days after fledging. Pure breed golden-winged warblers are almost unmistakable if seen well.

Golden-winged warblers are migratory, breeding in eastern North America and wintering in southern Central America and the neighboring regions in Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. This is a very rare vagrant to western Europe, with a single record of a bird wintering in a supermarket car park in Maidstone, Kent in 1989 and another from Corvo, Azores, in October 2012.

Golden-winged warblers breed in open scrubby areas, wetlands, and mature forest adjacent to those habitats. They lay 3–6 eggs (often 5) in a highly concealed cup nest on the ground or low in a bush.


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Wikipedia

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