Virginia's Warbler

Overview

Virginia's Warbler: Small warbler, gray upperparts, yellow rump. Throat is white with yellow patch, breast and undertail are yellow, sides and belly are white with a gray wash. Head has rufous crown patch, bold white eye-rings. Named for the wife of the army surgeon who discovered it in New Mexico.

Range and Habitat

Virginia's Warbler: Breeds from southeastern California, southern Idaho, and northern Colorado south to Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas. Spends winters south of the U.S.-Mexico border. Preferred habitats include scrub oak and other chaparral, pinyon-juniper brushlands, and pine and oak woodlands.

INTERESTING FACTS

Despite what its name may suggest, Virginia's Warbler is not named after the state of Virginia, which makes sense as the birds range only reaches as far east as the state of Texas. The bird was named for Virginia Anderson, the wife of an army surgeon who discovered the bird in New Mexico in 1858.
Their habitat is threatened by many factors, including road construction, invasion of non native plant species and wildfires.
When Spencer Fullerton Baird of the Smithsonian Institute described the bird for science in 1860 he honored the wishes of the warbler's discoverer and designated Virginia to be both the birds’ common and scientific name.
A group of warblers has many collective nouns, including a "bouquet", "confusion", "fall", and "wrench" of warblers.

The Virginia's Warbler has a large range, estimated globally at 280,000 square kilometers. Native to the Bahamas, Guatemala, Belize, Turks and Caicos Islands, and North America, this bird prefers subtropical or tropical shrubland or forest ecosystems. The global population of this bird is estimated at 410,000 individuals and does not show signs of decline that would necessitate inclusion on the IUCN Red List. For this reason, the current evaluation status of Virginia's Warbler is Least Concern.