“The song period extends from the arrival of the bird in migration to late July or early August. The average date of the last song in 14 years in Allegany Park is August 1. The earliest is July 26, 1933, and the latest August 15, 1937.”
Enemies.—Dr. Friedmann (1929) mentions only a few cases in which the magnolia warbler has been imposed upon by the cowbird, but E. H. Eaton (1914), says that the cowbird “seems to make a specialty of presenting this Warbler with one or more of its eggs, generally puncturing the eggs of the Magnolia before leaving the nest.” However, it is probable that this warbler is a rather uncommon victim, perhaps because the cowbird is not particularly common in the places where the warbler breeds.
Harold S. Peters (1936) lists two lice, Degeeriella eustigma (Kellogg) and Myrsidea incerta (Kellogg), as external parasites on this warbler.
Field marks.—The adult magnolia warbler of both sexes is so conspicuously marked that it should be easily recognized. The gray crown, black back and cheeks, yellow breast and rump, the two broad white wing bars and the large amount of white in the tail, midway between the base and the tip, are all good field marks. The female is only a little less brilliant than the male. The young bird in juvenal plumage is quite different, but the position of the white in the tail is distinctive.
Fall.—When the young birds are well able to take care of themselves, they and their parents join the gathering throngs of warblers and other small birds in preparation for the southward migration. Brewster (1877) writes:
In Eastern Massachusetts this species occurs as a fall migrant from September 21 to October 30, but it is never seen at this season in anything like the numbers which pass through the same section in spring, and the bulk of the migration must follow a more westerly route. Its haunts while with us in the autumn are somewhat different from those which it affects during its northward journey. We now find it most commonly on hillsides, among scrub-oaks and scattered birches, and in company with such birds as the Yellow-Rump (Dendroeca coronata) and the Black-Poll (D. striata). A dull, listless troop they are, comparatively sombre of plumage, totally devoid of song, and apparently intent only upon the gratification of their appetites.
Brewster was probably correct in assuming that the main trend of the fall migration is more westerly. Milton B. Trautman (1940) says of the fall migration of the magnolia warbler at Buckeye Lake, Ohio: “A persistent search in mid-August always resulted in recording a few early transients, and by the last of the month several were seen each day. The numbers increased gradually through early September. From September 10 to 25 the greatest daily numbers were attained, and 50 to 125 birds a day were noted. The numbers were slightly higher than they were in spring. The fall transients frequented the same types of habitat as did the spring birds, except that more were found in brushy fields or pastures, especially those dotted or thicketed with hawthorn and wild plum.”
Prof. W. W. Cooke (1904) writes:
Over much of the southern part of the United States the magnolia warbler, though rare in spring, is common in fall. * * * The general path of migration of the species seems to cross the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. It is bounded approximately on the east by a line drawn from the north central part of Georgia to eastern Yucatan, while few individuals seem to proceed farther west than the coast line from eastern Texas to southern Vera Cruz. In common with some twenty other species of birds the magnolia warbler seems to make its flight between the United States and Yucatan without taking advantage of the peninsula of Florida or using Cuba as a stopping place. At the southern end of the Allegheny Mountains it is a common migrant, while it has been noted only three times in Florida and only once in Cuba.