Cerulean Warbler

Dendroica cerulea

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family PARULIDAE

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Sound
4. Range
5. Habitat
6. Food
7. Behavior
8. Reproduction
9. Conservation Status
10. Other Names

A small bird of the deciduous forest treetops, the sky-blue Cerulean Warbler is hard to see. It nests and forages higher in the canopy than most other warblers.

Cool Facts

• On the wintering grounds in South America the Cerulean Warbler usually is found in mixed-species foraging flocks, associating with tropical tanagers and other resident species.

• When renesting after a failed first nest, the female often uses spider web from the old nest to start construction on the new nest. Fresh lining is gathered for the new nest, but spider web may be too valuable and time-consuming to waste.

• The female Cerulean Warbler has an unusual way of leaving a nest after sitting on it a while. Some people call it "bungee-jumping." She drops from the side of the nest, keeping her wings folded to her sides, and opens her wings to fly only when she is well below the nest.

Description

• Size: 11 cm (4 in)
• Wingspan: 20 cm (8 in)
• Weight: 8-10 g (0.28-0.35 ounces)

• Small warbler.
• Two broad white wingbars.
• Solidly colored back (sky-blue in male, blue-green in female) with stripes of same color down sides of white chest.

• Faint pale eyestripe.
• White spots in tail.

Sex Differences

Male bright sky blue. Female blue-green.

Male

Deep cerulean blue above. White throat and underparts. Blue streaking down sides of breast. Dark band across throat. Black stripe into eye, creating a blue eyestripe above. Faint black streaks on back.

Female

Bluish-green above. White washed with yellow below. White or yellowish line over eye. Dusky streaking down sides of breast. Two white wingbars. Back unstreaked.

Immature

Similar to female. Back gray-green to olive (female) or bluish gray washed with green (male). Prominent pale eyestripe. Dull whitish underparts. Dark ear coverts. Two white wingbars.

Sound

Buzzy notes ending in a higher pitched trill, "zee zee zee zizizizi eeet."

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds locally from central Minnesota to central New York, southward to Arkansas and North Carolina.

Winter Range

Winters in mountains of northern South America.

Habitat

• Breeds in forests with tall deciduous trees and open understory, such as wet bottomlands and dry slopes.
• Winters in broad-leaved, evergreen forests.

Detailed Habitat

For detailed atlasing effort, go to Cerulean Warbler Atlas Project, conducted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Food

Primarily insects, with some plant material taken in winter.

Behavior

Foraging

Gleans insects from leaves.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest an open cup of bark fibers, grass stems, and hair bound together with spider web, placed on a lateral limb of a deciduous tree in mid- to upper-canopy. Usually concealed from above by leaves or twigs on the nest branch.

Egg Description

Grayish to greenish white, speckled with brown.

Clutch Size

Usually 3-4 eggs. Range: 1-5.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless.

Conservation Status

Cerulean Warbler is one of the species of highest concern in the eastern United States because of a small total population size and significant declines throughout its range. Under consideration for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Listed on the Audubon Watchlist .

Other Names

Paruline azurée (French)
Pijirita azulosa, Verdín azulada, Gorjeador ceruleo, Chipe ceruléo, Reinita cerúlea (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Hamel, P. B. 2000. Cerulean Warbler (Dendroica cerulea). In The Birds of North America, No. 557 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.