Description.—Adult male: Mask across forehead and face, including the ear-coverts and entirely surrounding the eyes, blackish brown; prominent round patch on side of neck, buffy white; back of head, chin, throat, upper breast, and sides, rich reddish brown; back grayish, streaked with black, the wings with two prominent white wing-bars, the inner webs of the outer tail-feathers white at tips; lower breast, belly, and under tail-coverts white or creamy white. Adult female: Has but little suggestion of the reddish brown on head, breast, or sides, and the black of the face appears in a few streaks; two prominent wing-bars and the suggestion of reddish color on the sides are characteristic. Young birds: Obscure, being olive-green above, dull yellowish below, and, as a rule, having a trace of reddish brown; two prominent wing-bars; face and breast of a decidedly yellowish tone. Length: 5½ inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—A migrant, common in the spring during May, sometimes staying quite late, and abundant in the fall, the young fairly swarming through the trees in September and early October.
Bay-breasted Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
The buffy white patches on the sides of the neck of the adult male are excellent field-marks, and gleam like beacons when the red-brown cannot be distinguished. Young birds may easily be confused with immature Black-poll Warblers, however, and also look a little like vireos. The young Bay-breast is a yellower bird than the young Black-poll, however, and is somewhat more deliberate.
The song is a thin, wiry warble which does not lend itself readily to syllabization. Look for these birds in woodlands not far from streams, in spring. In autumn the young are to be found almost anywhere, even in the towns, and they are frequently to be seen searching for insects among rank weeds or low bushes.
BLACK-POLL WARBLER
Dendroica striata (J. R. Forster)
Description.—Adult male: Crown black; sides of head below eye, white, showing plainly in the field; black line from lower mandible to side of breast; neck, back, and wings greenish gray, streaked with black, the wings with two white bars, the tail with the inner webs of the outer feathers white; underparts white; sides of neck and breast and the sides heavily streaked with black. Adult female: Lacks the black crown and white facial patch, is dull olive-green all over, yellower on the breast, is noticeably streaked with black, even over top of head, and has two noticeable wing-bars. Immature: Plain olive-green above, obscurely streaked; dull yellowish below, with an indefinite line above eye and two prominent wing-bars. If specimens have been taken, the young Black-poll may be distinguished from the young Bay-breast by its yellowish rather than dusky feet. This mark may sometimes be seen in the field, since the birds are unsuspicious and may easily be observed. Length: 5½ inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—A migrant, fairly common in late spring, from about the middle of May on for three weeks; in the fall abundant, particularly the young birds, which during latter September may outnumber all other species combined.
Black-poll Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
The droll, unmusical song of the spring Black-poll will escape all but the sharpest ears. Ee, ee, ee, eee, eee, eeee, it seems to be, the latter syllables becoming louder. The first song I ever heard I listened to for a quarter of an hour before I could locate the singer among the leafy tops of some high elms. Once caught within the range of the binoculars, his colors were unmistakable, but it seemed scarcely possible that the slight, ventriloquistic song could be coming from him.