Blue-winged Warbler
Vermivora Cyanoptera
eBird gives this description for the Blue-winged Warbler: Small, yellow warbler found in scrubby or cut-over habitats with some large trees, including field edges or powerline cuts. Yellow overall with black line through eye. Blue-gray wings with two whitish wingbars; sharply pointed bill. Adult males brighter than females and immatures. Two-note buzzy song sounds rather insect-like. Winters in Central America. Hybridizes with Golden-winged Warbler. All About Birds provides this additional descriptive information about the Blue-winged Warbler: The Blue-winged Warbler sings a distinctive bee-buzz from brushy fields. It dangles from branches and leaves, foraging like a chickadee but shows off bright warbler plumage: a yellow belly, yellow-olive back, and white wingbars across blue-gray wings. A shrubland and old field specialist, it has benefited from landscape changes over the last 150 years as forest clearcuts and agricultural fields have grown up into scrubby fields. These changes have helped it expand northward, where it now hybridizes with and possibly threatens the much rarer Golden-winged Warbler.
I saw and photographed my first Blue-winged Warbler at the Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary on the late afternoon of April 18, 2021. To see my blog which covers the trip that includes my visit to Quintana, look here.
Cool Facts About The Blue-winged Warbler From All About Birds:
- Blue-winged Warblers hybridize extensively with Golden-winged Warblers, giving rise to two distinctive and fairly commonly seen hybrids: “Brewster’s” and “Lawrence’s” warblers. Brewster’s have golden wingbars and a white belly (Golden-winged features), but a white throat (a Blue-winged feature). Lawrence’s have a black throat (a Golden-winged feature), but white wingbars and a yellow belly (Blue-winged features).
- Blue-winged and Golden-winged Warblers look different, sing different songs, occur in somewhat different habitats, and winter in different places. But amazingly, these differences are only skin deep, or rather feather deep—the two species are 99.97% genetically similar, according to research done at the Cornell Lab.
- Blue-winged Warblers have expanded northward as landscapes changed to shrubbier habitats. This northward expansion increased contact and hybridization with Golden-winged Warblers. This hybridization and competition contributes to Golden-winged population declines.
- The oldest recorded Blue-winged Warbler was a male, and at least 9 years old when it was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in New Jersey.