Perching Birds

Connecticut Warbler  Oporornis agilis

Family: Wood Warblers, Parulidae

Audio: Martyn Stewart, © Naturesound.org

An estimated 91% of the species' North American population breeds within the Boreal Forest.

Description  5 1/2" (14 cm). Olive green above, dull yellow below; head, throat, and upper breast gray in males and dull brownish in females. Has conspicuous, unbroken white eye ring. No wing bars. Mourning Warbler similar but has faint, broken eye ring.

Habitat  Open larch-spruce bogs; during migration, low wet woods and damp thickets.

Nesting  4 or 5 whitish eggs, blotched with brown, in a nest of grass concealed in a clump of moss.

Voice  A loud, ringing beecher-beecher-beecher-beecher or chippy-chipper-chippy-chipper.

Range  Breeds from eastern British Columbia east through central Canada to western Quebec, and south to northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Winters in tropics.

Discussion  Named for its place of discovery, this species is only an uncommon migrant in Connecticut. The bird is seldom seen except by observers who know where to look. During spring migration, it feeds close to the ground in dense swampy woods; in the fall, it occurs most often in woodland edges where the growth is rank.