The male Cerulean Warbler is an eye-catching bird, named for the lovely blue of its back and head. Other identifying marks include black-streaked white flanks, a bold white eyebrow, white wing bars, and a black “necklace” that separates its white throat and belly.
Cerulean Warblers breed in large tracts of older deciduous forests with tall trees. In the Appalachian Mountains many warblers nest on north and east-facing slopes and seem to gravitate toward gaps or openings in the canopy. They tend to use white oak, cucumber magnolia, bitternut hickory, and sugar maple for nesting and foraging, typically avoiding red oak and red maple. During migration, they forage and rest in primary and secondary tropical forests, shade coffee plantations, and scrub. On the wintering grounds they occur in evergreen forests, woodlands, and shade coffee plantations on the eastern slopes of the northern Andes from 1,600 to 6,500 feet.
Song
Song
Song
Sounds provided by Macaulay Library.