Guide to Boreal Birds
Perching Birds Overview
The Orange-crowned Warbler is one of the most common western warblers and a rather rare migrant in the East. Its very lack of conspicuous field marks is an aid to its identification. Like other birds with concealed crown patches, this warbler displays the crown only during courtship or when alarmed.
Description
4 1/2-5 1/2" (11-14 cm). Olive green above with orange crown feathers, which usually remain hidden. Olive-yellow underparts with very faint breast streaking. No eye ring or wing bars.
Voice
Song is a simple trill going up or down the scale toward the end. Call a sharp stik.
Nesting
4-6 white eggs, with reddish or lavender spots often concentrated around the large end, in a rather large nest of grass and other plant fibers that is lined with fur or feathers. Nest is usually placed on the ground or in a low shrub.
Habitat
Forest edges, especially in low deciduous growth, burns, clearings, and thickets. On migration, often seen in riverside willows and in scrub oak chaparral.
Range/Migration
Breeds from Alaska east to Quebec and Labrador and south to California, Arizona, and New Mexico. Winters from southern United States into tropics.