Migratory birds showing up now around the state

  • Sharon Wootton / Outbound Columnist
  • Friday, April 30, 2004 9:00pm
  • Life

The orange-crowned warbler in my hand may have flown to Western Washington from as far away as El Salvador or Guatemala, through long nights of flight and days of resting and eating.

The journey to its breeding ground and summer home was over, now; no return flight would be made.

It was a reminder of the perils for small neotropical birds that cover thousands of miles. Learn more about the migrants by participating in International Migratory Bird Day activities May 8, including those in Edmonds and Everett.

International Migratory Bird Day celebrates that journey from the wintering grounds in Mexico and Central and South America to the U.S. and Canada.

The activities are also educational and provide encouragement to save the habitat that allows these birds to exist. Neotropical bird species are more than half of the 600 species that breed in North America.

Warblers most often seen in Western Washington are the orange-crested, yellow, yellow-rumped, black-throated gray, Townsend’s, MacGillivray’s, common yellow-throat and Wilson’s.

They are all wood warblers with their own family name, Parulidae, but be assured that ornithologists are always tinkering with the family tree of relations.

In general, wood warblers have sharply pointed bills, a go-go temperament and skinny legs — at least skinnier than some bird families.

They’re often a challenge to identify when they’re flitting about from leaf to branch to twig while gleaning insects.

While there are warbler waves each spring, they generally migrate in mixed flocks, not single-species groups. The life span is generally 6 to 8 years, according to birding expert David Sibley.

The orange-crowned warbler’s most distinguishing characteristic may be its lack of distinguishing marks: no bright contrasting colors, no wing bars, no bold eye line, no clear breast stripes or spots.

Even the small orange crown patch is rarely seen.

Although some field guides describe the four subspecies in the West in terms of yellow to dull gray, the photo in "Birds of the Puget Sound Region" best showed the bird that I was holding, with its shades of greenish yellow, and a greenish back.

The only bright spots on this 4- to 5-inch bird are the yellow tail coverts, those feathers under the tail near the body.

It likes brushy habitat for its breeding grounds, particularly in alder and willow thickets. It’s a very active insect-eating bird, but will eat spiders, berries and nectar.

It’s also been reported to follow the sapsucker migration and dine in the sapsucker wells.

According to Diana Wells in "100 Birds and How They Got Their Names," warbler comes from werble (root word wirbil in Old German), which first meant a tune, then changed to sing sweetly.

The orange-crowned warbler’s song, however, can best be described as a plain trill.

Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.

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