Cooperative Living July 2018 - 36

FeatheredFriends | Story and artwork by Carl " Spike " Knuth, Contributing Columnist
Golden-Winged Warbler
T
he Clinch Mountain Wildlife
Management Area in
southwestern Virginia hosts a
wonder of assorted flora and fauna.
It's a botanist's dream, especially in
spring. Beginning in April, into early
June, an almost weekly changing array
of wildflowers and other vegetation
can be seen. This particular day, I
was there to capture some of that
variety and beauty on film.
Coming to a sprawling open area
somewhere near Big Tumbling Creek,
I looked up into some tall stands of
trees along the clearing's edge. A
movement high in the trees caught
my eye and I strained to get a good
look with my binoculars at some small
birds. They flitted about actively,
obviously feeding. Sometimes they'd
fly out to catch a flying insect and other
times they'd actually hang upside down
as they worked through the branches.
I finally got a good look and saw a
facial pattern of dark patches and
thought, " Oh, those are chickadees. "
But then I noticed bright-gold wing
bars on them and realized I was
seeing golden-winged warblers.
The golden-winged warbler belongs
to a special group of warblers that
interbreed, resulting in four distinct
species of warblers. Hybridization
between the blue-winged warbler and
golden-winged has resulted in two
others; the Brewster's warbler and
the Lawrence's warbler. They in turn
mate indiscriminately, producing
fertile offspring. None are very
common, and the Brewster's and
Lawrence's are rare. I imagine even
an expert would have trouble
identifying them in the hand, let
alone in the field. And only an
expert could explain the genetics of
hybridization involved with this
bird, a topic studied for years.
34 | Cooperative Living | July 2018
Considered
a species
of special
concern.
What has been ascertained is that the
blue-winged warbler has " over-powered "
the golden-winged genetically, displacing
it from much of its breeding range.
However, in response, the golden-winged
has expanded its range eastward and
northward, to areas along the United
States/Canada border as well as in
higher elevations of the Appalachians,
actually as far south as northern Georgia.
In these areas the golden-winged warbler
gets less competition from the bluewinged.
But even here in Virginia's
Cumberland Mountains it is uncommon;
so it was a special treat to be able to
see and identify it.
The golden-winged is about 5 inches
long. The adult male has a black throat
and auricular ( " ear " ) patch with a
deep-yellow crown, and a yellow to
olive-yellow fore crown and yellowgold
wing bars. Its underside is white,
graduating to gray, and it's grayish on its
back. The female is similar but duller
all around with grayish throat and face
patch. The song is a series of buzzy
insect-like notes described as " Bzeebuzz-buzz-buzz "
the first note being
prolonged and followed by lowerpitched
shorter notes. Its call is a
chattering " Tchu-tchu-tchu. "
As I witnessed, golden-winged
warblers forage much like chickadees
hanging upside down and dangling from
the outer tips of branches as they feed.
Actually, they have been seen feeding
with chickadees. Golden-winged warblers
arrive in Virginia a bit later than other
warblers; usually in late-April or earlyMay.
Their favored habitat is the early
stages of successional vegetation; that
is, new growth in areas recently
cleared now containing shrubs,
saplings, vines and briars. They are
drawn to abandoned pastures,
woodland openings along stream or
pond borders, and swamp edges. They
also inhabit power-line and pipeline
rights-of-way, tall deciduous trees along
the edges of brushy fields, with newly
growing mixed hardwoods and conifers.
Due to this habitat type this bird's
range is dynamic and changes frequently,
meaning it will not always be found
in the same types of places.
Based on most information available,
golden wings build their nests close
to or on the ground, hidden and
anchored to tall herbaceous plant
stems such as goldenrod, milkweed,
even vines. The nest is bulky and
constructed with dry leaves, grasses,
bark strips and lined with fine grasses,
forming a neat cup. It may look like
just a cluster of leaves stuck in the
tall vegetation. The hen lays four to
five eggs, dull white with speckles of
dark brown, chestnut and lilac-gray.
Golden-winged warblers are often
parasitized by cowbirds. Their eggs
incubate for about 10 days, and in
another 10 days the hatchlings are
fledged. Both parents feed them with
their main diet including insects, leaf
lice, small caterpillars such as
cankerworms, and a myriad of small
flying insects, which they catch on the
fly like gnatcatchers and flycatchers.
The bird's Latin name is Vermivora,
meaning " worm-eating, " and its Greek
name is chrysospteron, meaning
golden-winged. It is considered a
species of special concern by the U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service.
The fall migration begins in late
August and early September, and most
golden-winged warblers are on their
way south before the end of
September. They sometimes join
mixed flocks of other small birds.
They winter from southern Mexico
through Central America into
Columbia and Venezuela, especially
in higher elevations. 
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Cooperative Living July 2018

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