Field Marks: 4.5 in. A tiny warbler of the canopy in coniferous forests and mixed woods; usually found near water. Breeds in wide range of habitats. Particularly characteristic of southeastern cypress swamps and boreal spruce forests, both of which provide mossy nesting materials (lichen in the North, Spanish moss in the South). Males blue-gray above with white wing bars and broken eye-ring; green patch in middle of back; yellow on throat and breast, with double breast band of black and rusty orange; rest of underparts white. Females, immatures similar but somewhat duller, without breast bands. Song a distinctive, buzzy trill, rising in pitch and ending in a sharp note: "zeee-e-e-e-e-e-e-ip."
Range: Breeds from se. Manitoba to Nova Scotia, south locally to central Texas, Gulf Coast, and central Florida; occasionally farther west. Winters in s. Florida and rarely along Gulf Coast; also in Mexico and Central America.
