Tennessee Warbler

Leiothlypis peregrina

eBird gives this description of the Tennessee Warbler:  Tiny, greenish warbler that breeds in boreal forest. Breeding males have lime-green back, pale blue-gray head, and dingy whitish underparts. Females and immatures generally show more yellow overall, but still dull. Note thin dark line through the eye, paler eyebrow, and whitish undertail coverts. Most similar to Orange-crowned Warbler. Look for cleaner, unstreaked breast and white (not yellow) undertail coverts. Loud song for such a small bird; usually three-parted series of accelerating chips. Often found around flowering trees during migration. Winters in Central and South America.  All About Birds adds the following descriptive information for the Tennessee Warbler:  Tennessee Warblers are dainty, thin-billed warblers that breed in the boreal forest of Canada. Though they lack the brilliant colors of other warbler species, breeding males are a crisp mixture of gray head, white stripe over the eye, and green back. Females and nonbreeders can look more generally yellowish, inviting confusion with species like Orange-crowned Warblers, but they always show white under the tail. This numerous species eats mostly small caterpillars and benefits from the spruce budworm outbreaks that happen periodically in their breeding habitat.

I saw my first Tennessee Warber at Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary on the morning of April 18, 2021. The next day I was also able to watch this bird briefly while at Lafitte’s Cove on Galveston Island.  If you would like to read my birding blog about the trip that includes seeing the Tennessee Warbler, look here.