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Chestnut-sided Warbler

Status Common in summer. Breeds. Birds generally appear in mid-May (average 14 May, earliest 4 May, apart from a very early bird in Halifax County on 27 April 1966). It is widespread during the summer on the mainland but uncommon on Cape Breton Island. Migration is well underway by mid-September, and last sightings are routine in October but not later (average 11 October, latest 30 October).

Description Length: 11.5-13.5 cm. Adult male: Entire crown bright yellow; patch on side of head behind eye white; line from base of bill to eye and extending down side of throat black; two yellowish white wing bars; back bright olive-green, streaked with black; tail black with white patches near tip; underparts white, bordered conspicuously along sides with bright chestnut. Adult female: Similar but colours duller and area of chestnut more restricted.

Breeding Nest: A rather compact affair composed of coarse grass, dry leaves and plant down, with a lining of soft grass and fine rootlets, always (in my experience) placed in the crotch of low deciduous bushes in thickets in open woodland. Eggs: 4-5; white, well marked with various shades of brown chiefly about the larger end. Nest construction sometimes begins soon after arrival, a female having been seen gathering material on 25 May 1922 at Albany, Annapolis County. A set of four fresh eggs was examined at Goldenville, Guysborough County, on 23 June 1903 (H.F. Tufts).

Range Breeds from east central Alberta, central Ontario, southern Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, south to the northeastern United States (further south in the Appalachians), northern Ohio and eastern Nebraska. Winters in Central America.

Remarks Look for it in new, second-growth thickets of alders and other deciduous bushes growing in scrubby clearings or along the margins of streams, for it shuns deep woods and does not come to our gardens in towns and villages except for brief periods during migration.

The best mark for field identification in spring is its glistening white underparts, bordered on each side with a broad band of sharply contrasting bright chestnut. Fall birds are quite different greenish above, whitish below, with two yellowish wing bars.

Its song is easily confused with that of our common Yellow Warbler and, to add to the confusion, both birds are often found in the same type of habitat.