Nashville Warbler (Vermivora ruficapilla)

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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

Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior

Recording by John R. Sauer, U.S. Geological Survey

Nashville Warbler (Vermivora ruficapilla)

Identification: 4 inches from tip of the bill to tip of the tail.

Breeding Male: The back, wings and tail are olive-green, but the head is gray. There is a constrasting white eye ring and a white line connecting the eye ring to the base of the bill. The underside (except for the belly) is yellow without streaks. Wing bars are absent. The feathers on the underside of the tail are yellow. There are orange feathers on the crown on the head, but they are very seldom seen.

Female: The female is similar to the male, but the head is duller and greener.

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

Immature: Similar to the female.

Similar Species: The Nashville Warbler could be mistaken for either the Orange-crowned Warbler or the Tennessee Warbler. Both of these species lack the contrasting white eye ring of the Nashville Warbler and have a lighter band (either white or yellow) over the eye (supercilium). A dark line crosses the eye in both of these species, but this line is absent in the Nashville Warbler. The Connecticut Warbler has a contrasting white eye ring, but the throat is gray, not yellow as in the Nashville Warbler.

Breeding Range (see map below): The Nashville Warbler has a divided range with separated populations in eastern and western North America. The species occurs throughout the Northern Boreal Forest and its transition with the Eastern Deciduous Forest in the east, ranging as far west as Saskatchewan and as far south as Pennsylvania in the south. The western population stretches from southern British Columbia in the north to southern California in the south.

Overwintering Range: American tropics.

Habitat: The Nashville Warbler is a species of second growth deciduous forest, mixed coniferous-deciduous forest, or the margins of swamps and spruce bogs.

Food: Insects.

Behavior: The Nashville Warbler is fond of second growth forest with lots of brush, shrubs, and brambles. The song is loud and divided into two segments; an initial teebit-teebit-teebit followed by chipper-chipper-chipper.

Reproduction: The nest is a cup constructed of grass, leaves, and roots lined with grass and pine needles. The clutch consists of 4 to 5 white eggs spotted with brown. The nest is located on the ground hidden at the base of a bush or in a tussock of grass.