North American Warbler ID Page

NorthAmericanWarblerIDPage

Welcome to my warbler page! This is an identification-oriented page for Eastern wood warblers, and is hugely improved due to the photos contributed by several other photographers. All photos are by me unless otherwise noted next to the image, and a list of all contributing photographers is listed just below here. All are copyrighted! Note: not all of the shots on this page are as good as the others, but might be here to show some feature or another. This will still be a work in progress for some time to come, and I will eventually add the western species as well...

Contributing photographers, and their websites if they have one:
SB Steve Bentsen http://www.dosvenadas.com
JB John Boyd http://www.fiu.edu/~boydj/
JD Jon Dunn
JF Jim Flynn
LR Larry Gridley
BH Bruce Hallett
EHar Ed Harper
RH Rachel Holzman http://www.flickr.com/photos/dotbleu1/
EH Earl Horn
PH Pierre Howard
HH Hunter Hebenstreit
TH Tony Hepburn
GL Greg Lasley
CM Charlie Muise http://www.atlantaaudubon.org/iba/
MO Mark Oberle http://www.puertoricobirds.com/
DP Dennis Paulson
JS Judy Semroc
NS Netta Smith
LT Luke Theodorou
DV Dan Vickershttp://www.flickr.com/photos/dfvickers/
BZ Bob Zaremba

NOTE: The AOU 51st Supplement of July 2010 changed some scientific names and split the old genera Vermivora and Seiurus. This page now reflects the new taxonomy as reflected in that supplement.

FURTHER NOTE: The AOU 52nd Supplement has radically changed the Parulidae, so I have revised this entire page for taxonomic changes.

David Sibley discusses the new taxonomy on this page.

Note: On all warblers, it's probably easiest to start with the head pattern, because most can be identified by that alone. A few terms I will use a lot: -Eyeline: a line through the eye, also called an intra-ocular stripe or line -Supercilium: a line above the eye, also called an eyebrow -Undertail coverts: the puffy group of feathers at the rear of the belly going up to the base of the tail After the head pattern, the color of the underparts including undertail coverts, pattern on the tail if any including presence or absence of spots, and the presence or absence of wingbars are good items to check next. I have tried to provide information on aging and sexing where possible, but keep in mind that in many cases adult females cannot be separated from immature males.

Note also that photos of mine have the date the image was taken as part of the file name, so you can tell when the photo was taken (spring vs fall plumage, for example) by pausing your mouse over the photo to get the file name. Someday I will add all the dates for all the photos, but for now it's enough just trying to keep it updated with new photos! This site is being published in March 2020, and many of the pages have been brought over from my old site but are not yet cleaned up from transcription issue... please be patient with me!