George Miksch Sutton’s fine color plate (Van Tyne, 1936, frontispiece) of the Colima warbler is apparently the only published figure of the species.
Behavior.—In Texas, the Colima warbler was observed feeding on insects (which were not identified), but nothing further has been recorded about its food. All observers seem to agree that it is not a shy bird, although in its preferred cover, the female seems elusive and nests are difficult to find. Sutton has remarked that they are “rather deliberate, even vireo-like in their movements” (Van Tyne and Sutton, 1937). In the Chisos Mountains, they frequented especially the young maples and deciduous oaks along the banks of the dry, boulder-strewn stream bed, and elsewhere on the steep mountain slopes their preference for clumps of small oaks was noted.
Voice.—The call note of the Colima warbler is a very sharp, almost explosive psit. Its common song is a continuous trill, like that of the chipping sparrow, but shorter (lasting 3 to 4 seconds), more musical, and ending with two separate notes slightly lower in scale. A second, rarer, and more varied song is so clear that it can be heard for three or four hundred feet through the woods although it does not seem loud when heard from nearby. It is perhaps this song that Brandt (1940) describes as resembling the song of the eastern redstart. E. C. Jacot (MS.) reports that the males usually start singing when “a person approaches the territory of a pair, and continues to sing until the intruder has passed.” In the Chisos Mountains, Tex., the males were persistent singers. Once several sang even after a dense fog had silenced most other species. They sang usually from bushes and small trees between periods of feeding and moving about but sometimes remained for a while on a higher perch (up to 20 feet), singing at frequent intervals.
DISTRIBUTION
Range.—Chisos Mountains, Tex., and mountains of northeastern Mexico; probably winters in Colima, Michoacán, and Sinaloa.
The Colima warbler has been recorded from: Texas (Chisos Mountains); Coahuila (Sierra Guadalupe and Diamante Pass); Tamaulipas (Miquihuana); Michoacán (Patamba and Sierra Ozumatlan); Sinaloa (5 miles north of Santa Lucia); Colima (Sierra Nevada).
Egg dates.—Texas: 2 records, May 15 and 20.
LUCY’S WARBLER