Black-throated Gray Warbler

Overview

Black-throated Gray Warbler: Small warbler, black-marked, slate-gray upperparts, black streaks on flanks, white underparts. Head has black hood and throat, sharply contrasting white eyebrow and cheek stripe, and yellow spot in front of eye. Wings are dark with two white bars. Black bill, legs, feet.

Range and Habitat

Black-throated Gray Warbler: Breeds from southern British Columbia (except Vancouver Island), Washington, Idaho, and Colorado southward. Spends winters in the southwest U.S. and Mexico. Preferred habitats include shrubby openings in coniferous forests or mixed woods, dry scrub oak, pinyon and juniper, chaparral, and other low brushy areas.

INTERESTING FACTS

Migrating warblers follow mountain ranges and the Pacific coastline southward. Despite these landmarks, however, some get lost.
A few turn up every year in the eastern states as vagrants.
The Black-throated Gray Warbler is considered a short-distance migrant, moving from its breeding areas in the western United States only as far south as Mexico.
They pretend to have a broken wing to distract intruders from finding their nests.
A group of warblers has many collective nouns, including a "bouquet", "confusion", "fall", and "wrench" of warblers.

The Black-throated Gray Warbler is a small songbird native to the New World. This species enjoys breeding in open, coniferous and mixed woodland areas in western North America. Typically, the Black-throated Gray Warbler will frequent woodlands containing oak, juniper and pinyon pines. Nests are built in an open cup shape on horizontal branches in the trees. In winter months, this species migrates to Mexico and the southwestern United States. They are foragers, and frequently search for food among low vegetation such as insects and caterpillars. Sometimes, they are able to hover over or catch insects in-flight. The Black-throated Gray Warbler currently has a conservation status of Least Concern.