Guide to North American Birds
Conservation status Still common, but surveys suggest declining populations.
Family Wood Warblers
Habitat Oak canyons, brushy slopes, pinyons. Breeds on dry mountainsides in scrub oak, chaparral, pinyon-juniper woods, or other low brushy habitats. In some areas, prefers mountain mahogany and Gambel oak. In migration, frequently in woods along streams. In winter in Mexico, at mid-elevations in dry scrub.
A rather plain warbler that spends the summer in brush and chaparral on dry mountainsides in the West. The dense low nature of its habitat often makes Virginia's Warbler hard to observe, but its presence is revealed by its simple trilled song and by its hard callnote, tsick. Although it is common over much of the West, its nesting behavior remains poorly known, partly because its nest is extremely difficult to find.

Photo Gallery

Feeding Behavior

During the breeding season, forages mostly by taking insects among foliage and twigs. Also observed feeding on the ground, and catching flying insects in mid-air. May do much probing of buds and flowers. In winter in Mexico, feeds low, mostly within 15' of the ground.


Eggs

4, sometimes 3-5. White to creamy with fine reddish brown spots. Incubation probably by female. Eggs and young frequently fall prey to jays or snakes. Apparently nests are only rarely parasitized by cowbirds. Young: Fed by both parents. Age at leaving nest is not well known. Possibly 2 broods per year.


Young

Fed by both parents. Age at leaving nest is not well known. Possibly 2 broods per year.

Diet

Presumably mostly insects. Diet is not known in detail, presumed to eat a wide variety of small insects, like other warblers.


Nesting

Breeding behavior is not well known. Arriving on breeding grounds in April and early May, the male sings from perches on exposed dead limbs. Pairs begin nesting by early June. Males defend large territories. Nest: Usually very difficult to find. Placed under grass tufts in hollow of decaying leaves on ground covered by dense brush. Frequently on steep hillside or talus slope. Nest (probably built by female) is open cup of coarse grass, bark strips, roots, and moss, lined with animal hair and moss.

Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
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Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds

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Migration

Probably migrates mostly at night, like other warblers. Southward migration begins quite early, the birds mostly disappearing from the breeding grounds in August.

  • All Seasons - Common
  • All Seasons - Uncommon
  • Breeding - Common
  • Breeding - Uncommon
  • Winter - Common
  • Winter - Uncommon
  • Migration - Common
  • Migration - Uncommon

See a fully interactive migration map for this species on the Bird Migration Explorer.

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Songs and Calls

Song a musical seedle-seedle-seedle, sweet, sweet. Call is a sharp plink.
Audio © Lang Elliott, Bob McGuire, Kevin Colver, Martyn Stewart and others.
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How Climate Change Will Reshape the Range of the Virginia's Warbler

Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.

Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.

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Climate threats facing the Virginia's Warbler

Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.