| Golden-crowned Warbler | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Parulidae |
| Genus: | Basileuterus |
| Species: | B. culicivorus |
| Binomial name | |
| Basileuterus culicivorus (Deppe, 1830) |
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The Golden-crowned Warbler, Basileuterus culicivorus, is a small New World warbler.
Contents |
It breeds from Mexico and south through Central America to northeastern Argentina and Uruguay, and on Trinidad. It is a species mainly of lowland forests.
The Golden-crowned Warbler is 12.7 cm long and weighs 10 g. It has grey-green upperparts and bright yellow underparts. The head is grey with a black-bordered yellow crown stripe, a yellow supercilium and a black eyestripe. Sexes are similar, but the immature Golden-crowned Warbler is duller, browner, and lacks the head pattern other than the eyestripe.
Golden-crowned Warbler has 13 geographical races, which fall into three groups. The Central American culicivorus group ("Stripe-crowned Warbler") is essentially as described above, the southwestern cabanisi group ("Cabanis’s Warbler") has grey upperparts and a white supercilium, and the aureocapillus group ("Golden-crowned Warbler") of the southeast has a white supercilum and orange-rufous crown stripe. The three groups are sometimes considered to be different species.
These birds feed on insects and spiders. The song is a high thin pit-seet-seet-seet-seet, and the call is a sharp tsip. It lays two to four rufous-spotted white eggs in a domed nest in a bank, often by a forest path, or under leaves on the forest floor. Parent birds will feign injury to distract potential nest predators.