Townsend's Warbler

Dendroica townsendi
STANFORD LOCATIONS:

Uncommon migrant and winter resident in various habitat types throughout campus. A few can be found in oaks and eucalyptus trees near the Mausoleum in fall and winter.
  
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs
Mating System
Dev.
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
FM?
I: 12? DAYS
ALTRICIAL
8 feet - 15 feet
(7 feet - 60 feet)
MF(?)
4-5
(3-5)
MONOG
F: 8-10(?) DAYS
F-M?
HAWKS
BREEDING: Conif and conif-decid forests.? broods.
DISPLAYS: ?
NEST: Usu far out on horizontal branch of fir; relatively shallow, of grass, moss, cedar bark, fir twigs, plant fibers, lined with moss, feathers, hair.
EGGS: White, marked with browns, usu mostly at large end but not wreathed. 0.7" (18 mm).
DIET: Largely or entirely insects; also few seeds, plant galls.
CONSERVATION: Winters s through highlands of Mexico to Costa Rica. Rare cowbird host.
NOTES: Female allows close approach when incubating, then drops to ground and disappears. During summer, activities confined to highest parts of trees. In winter in N.A., joins mixed-species flocks of chickadees, nuthatches, etc.; in Mexico and C.A., often gregarious, forming single-species flocks and feeding on fruit and nectar. Birds breeding on islands off BC winter in U.S. and have longer wings and smaller bills than birds breeding elsewhere and wintering s of U.S.
ESSAYS: Species and Speciation; Superspecies; Bird Guilds; Decline of Eastern Songbirds; Mixed-Species Flocking; Wintering and Conservation.
REFERENCES: Harrison, 1984; Morrison, 1983.

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Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).