Connecticut Warbler (Oporonis agilis)

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A Field Guide to Warblers of North America (The Peterson Field Guide Series). by Kimball L. Garrett, Jon L. Dunn, Cindy House (Illustrator)

Warblers of Eastern North America

Color Photograph: © by and courtesy of John Cassady

Recording by Chan Robbins, U.S. Geological Survey

Connecticut Warbler (Oporonis agilis)

Identification: 5 inches from tip of bill to tip of tail.

Breeding Male: The head, neck, and breast of the male Connecticut Warbler are gray-blue and there is a complete, conspicuous white eye ring. The back is olive-brown and wing bars are absent. The sides and belly are a dull white. The yellow feathers on the underside of the tail extend almost to the end of the tail.

Female: The female is very similar to the male, but there is a white wash on the throat and the blue-gray of the breast is slightly suffused with olive-brown.

Fall Male and Female: Similar to the breeding male and female.

Immature: Similar to the female.

Similar Species: The Connecticut Warbler is very similar to the Mourning Warbler and the two species can be extremely difficult to tell apart. Females and immatures are particularly difficult to separate. The blue-gray neck and breast of the male Mourning Warbler is flecked with black, but this black flecking is absent in the Connecticut Warbler. The Connecticut Warbler has a complete white eye-ring. The eye-ring is absent in the male Mourning Warbler. An eye-ring is present in the female Mourning Warbler, but is weaker and broken. The yellow underside of the male Mourning Warbler is brighter than that of the Connecticut Warbler. The Connecticut Warbler could be confused with a Nashville Warbler. However the throast and breast of the Nashville Warbler is yellow and the white eye-ring of the Nashville Warbler is connected by a white line to the base of the bill.

Breeding Range (see map below): The Connecticut Warbler is an uncommon and local species breeding in the Northern Boreal Forest from Quebec in the east to British Columbia in the west. The species is known from northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan in the United States.

Overwintering Range: American Tropics.

Habitat: During the breeding season the Connecticut Warbler is found in open spruce and tamarack bogs. The species, during migration, is found most commonly in wet woods and other damp, woody habitats.

Food: Insects.

Behavior: The Connecticut Warbler is rarely seen and prefers to spend much of its time in the understory of wet thickets and woods hidden from view. The song is loud and ringing with the phrasing beecher-beecher-beecher.

Reproduction: The nest is constructed of grass and commonly concealed in a mass of moss. The clutch consists of 4 or 5 white eggs blotched with brown.