Black-throated Green Warbler

A green back, yellow face, black throat and two white wing bars distinguish the male. The duller female lacks the black throat. Length: 12 cm.; weight: 12 g. Audio (M. Oberle). Breeds in the eastern USA and southern Canada. Winters primarily in Central America. Rare winter visitor in wet and dry forests on Puerto Rico (e.g. Maricao State Forest, 5 January to 7 April 1981, 1 April 1999 and 10 February 2002; Bosque de los Tres Picachos, 9 March 1999; A±asco, 25 and 27 March 2002; Camablache State Forest, 22 December 2001). However, as with many wintering forest species, it is probably more common than the scant reports suggest.

The similar Golden-cheeked Warbler was reported from St. Croix in the Virgin Islands in the mid-20^th Century (23 Nov. 1939 and 8 Jan. 1940). It resembles the Black-throated Green Warbler, but has a much larger golden cheek patch bordered by a black eye line. Although it may occur in Puerto Rico, this has become less likely because the endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler has declined dramatically over the last century in its narrow breeding range in central Texas due to habitat destruction and cowbird nest parasitism.

TAXONOMY: PASSERIFORMES; PARULIDAE

Photo: R. Zaremba

References

Arendt, W.J. 1992. Status of North American migrant landbirds in the Caribbean region: a summary. Pp. 143-171 in Ecology and conservation of neotropical migrant landbirds (J.M. Hagan III and D.W. Johnston, eds.) Smithsonian Instit. Press, Washington, D.C.

Arroyo-Vazquez, B. 1991. Additional record of the Black-throated Green Warbler in Puerto Rico, with some observations on foraging behavior. Orn Neotrop. 2: 97-98.

Bent, A.C. 1953. Life histories of North American wood warblers. Smithsonian Instit. U.S. National Museum Bull. 203. (Reprinted by Dover Press, NY, 1963).

Curson, J., D. Quinn, and D. Beadle. 1994. Warblers of the Americas: an identification guide. Houghton Mifflin, NY.

Dunn, J. and K. Garrett. 1997. A field guide to warblers of North America. Houghton Mifflin, NY.

Ehrlich, P.R., D.S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. 1988. The birderÆs handbook: a field guide to the natural history of North American birds. Simon and Schuster/ Fireside, NY.

Morse, D. H. 1993. Black-throated Green Warbler (Dendroica virens). No. 55 in The birds of North America (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, PA, and Am. Ornithol. Union, Washington, D.C.

Pérez-Rivera, R.A. 1980. Algunas notas sobre migración de aves en Puerto Rico. Science-Ciencia 7(4):123-126.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Princeton.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. Una guía a las aves de Puerto Rico y las Islas Vírgenes. Publishing Resources, Inc., Santurce, PR.

Raffaele, H.A., J.W. Wiley, O.H. Garrido, A.R. Keith, and J.I. Raffaele. 1998. Guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton.

Black-throated Green Warbler, Spanish text

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