| Grace's Warbler | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Parulidae |
| Genus: | Dendroica |
| Species: | D. graciae |
| Binomial name | |
| Dendroica graciae Baird, 1865 |
|
Grace's Warbler, Dendroica graciae, is a small perching bird and a species of New World warbler.
Grace's Warbler was discovered by Dr. Elliott Coues in the Rocky Mountains in 1864. Coues chose to name the new species after his 18-year-old sister, Grace Darling Coues, and his request was honored when Spencer Fullerton Baird described the species scientifically in 1865.
Grace's Warbler is a small bird, growing to 11–13 cm long. It is mostly gray on top, with broken black streaks across the back and flanks and two white bars on the wings. The throat and breast are a bright and vibrant yellow, and it has a yellow half-eye ring under the eye and a long yellow "eyebrow" stripe that starts at the base of the beak and runs above the eye, fading to white after it passes the eye. The rest of the underparts are white.
Grace's Warblers are locally common in open mixed pine-oak woodlands above 2,000 m (7,000 feet). Grace's Warblers summer in the south-western United States and northern Mexico and migrate into Central America for the winter, traveling as far south as Nicaragua.
The nesting habits of Grace's Warblers are largely unknown, as nests are very rarely found. The nest is a compact cup of plant fibers, the inside lined with hair and feathers, placed high above ground on a tree branch, usually pine. The female lays 3 to 5 white or cream-colored eggs, speckled with brown, and ringed at the larger end.
Like the vast majority of warblers, Grace's Warbler is totally insectivorous. It will often hover to inspect pine cones for insect larvae.