Red-faced Warbler

  (Cardellina rubrifrons)

eBird gives this description for the Red-faced Warbler:  Stunning warbler found in mountains and canyons with a mix of pine and oak. Gray overall with a striking red-and-black face. Rather long tail is actively flipped around, seemingly loosely attached to the body. Male and female are similar, but young birds show a duller orange-red face. Primarily a Mexican species, with breeding range barely extending into the southwest U.S. Winters as far south as Honduras.

All About Birds gives this additional descriptive information for the Red-faced Warbler:  The startlingly pretty Red-faced Warbler is a mix of gray, black, and fire-engine red. Mainly a bird of high-elevation coniferous forests, its core range is in Mexico but it breeds as far north as Arizona and New Mexico. It forages among branches and needles fairly high in the trees, but makes its nest in a depression on the ground. Its narrow range and preference for mature forests makes it vulnerable to logging in the region, and for these reasons it’s included on the Partners in Flight Yellow Watch List.

I saw, and photographed my first Red-faced Warbler on Saturday, August 6, 2022.  I was on a 2022 Southwest Wings Birding Festival fieldtrip with guide Scott Olmstead, who put me on to the bird.  While I wasn’t able to get a great photo, I was able to take the photo below.  I am grateful to Scott–  without him, and his acuity and expertise, there is no way I would have seen this bird.  To see the eBird list Scott filed about our visit to this area, look here.  To read my Blog Post that includes my time with this outstanding guide, look here.

CAN YOU SEE THE RED-FACED WARBLER, HIGH UP IN THE CANOPY?
THE ABOVE PHOTO, ENLARGED AND CROPPED, CLEARLY SHOWS THE RED-FACED WARBLER SCOTT AND I WATCHED ON AUGUST 6, 2022.


“Cool Facts” About The Red-faced Warbler, From All About Birds:

  • Most warbler species molt twice a year, but the Red-faced Warbler molts just once a year, keeping its bold red tones all through the seasons—there is no difference between “breeding” and “nonbreeding” plumages in this species.
  • If you see one adult Red-faced Warbler quivering its wings at another, it may be a mating display. Both sexes do this during the breeding season. The male shows off his white rump patch as much as possible. He’ll even move around to keep the patch oriented toward the female while displaying.
  • Red-faced Warblers pair up to raise young, but both sexes routinely mate outside the pair as well. More than 45% of all nests in one study contained young unrelated to the male that tended the nest.