Adult male. Photo: Karen Brown/Audubon Photography Awards
Geothlypis trichas
| Conservation status | Has undoubtedly declined in many regions with draining of marshes, and perhaps also in some areas where good habitat still exists. However, still widespread and very common. |
|---|---|
| Family | Wood Warblers |
| Habitat | Swamps, marshes, wet thickets, edges. Breeds most abundantly in marshes and other very wet habitats with dense low growth. Also nests in briars, moist brushy places, tangles of rank weeds and shrubbery along streams, and overgrown fields, but is generally scarce in drier places. In migration and winter, still most common in marshes, but also occurs in any kind of brushy or wooded area. |
Forages in marsh and among other dense low growth, searching for insects on surface of plants, sometimes hovering briefly to take insects from foliage. Occasionally makes short flights to catch insects in mid-air, and sometimes forages on ground.
Usually 3-5, sometimes 6. Creamy white with brown and black spots. Incubation is by female only, 12 days. The male feeds the female on the nest during incubation. Very commonly parasitized by cowbirds. Young: Fed by both parents. Leave the nest after 8-10 days. Normally 2 broods per year. Young are dependent on parents for a considerable period, longer than most other warblers.
Fed by both parents. Leave the nest after 8-10 days. Normally 2 broods per year. Young are dependent on parents for a considerable period, longer than most other warblers.
Mostly insects. Feeds mainly on insects, including small grasshoppers, dragonflies, damselflies, mayflies, beetles, grubs, cankerworms and other caterpillars, moths, flies, ants, aphids, leafhoppers, and others; also eats spiders, and a few seeds.
Male displays to female during courtship by flicking wings and tail, following her closely, and performing a flight display: flying up to 25-100' in the air and returning to another low perch, calling and singing. Nest: Prefers to nest low (less than 3' up) on tussocks of briars, weeds, grasses, or shrubs, and among cattails, bulrushes, sedges in marshes. Bulky open cup built by female, sometimes with a partial roof of material loosely attached to the rim. Made of weeds, grass stems, sedges, dead leaves, bark, and ferns; lined with fine grass, bark fibers, and hair.
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