Larch Creek Birds

What the birds (and frogs) are saying at a creek in western Washington
Plate 21
Wilson's Warbler
John James Audubon, betw
Bird

Wilson's Warbler

Cardellina pusilla
New World Warblers (Parulidae)
Heading out
Summer visitor. Expected here roughly Apr to Oct. Moving on: expectation falls from 49% now to 25% a month from now.
Field marks
A tiny bright-yellow warbler with an olive back and, on the male, a neat black cap like a beret worn by someone who means it.
Male & female
The male's cap is glossy black; the female's is smaller and duller or missing altogether.
Voice
A rapid, chattering series of 'chi' notes that speeds up and drops at the end, like a tiny engine being wound and let go.
Diet
Insects and spiders gleaned from willows, often snatched in mid-air.
Habitat
Willow thickets, streamside shrubs and wet forest edges: a creek bed, in other words.
Nesting
A cup on or near the ground in dense shrubbery; 4–6 eggs.
Size
4–5 in long, a quarter of an ounce: two nickels, or one AA battery with ambitions.

A summer visitor that winters from Mexico to Panama, a trip of 3,000 miles for a bird that weighs less than a letter. Anything after mid-October is a straggler.

Season how expected it is here, week by week

50%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecheard at the creektoday
Fig. 1. BirdNET's range model for this location: the chance this species is present in each week of the year. Orange ticks mark weeks it has actually been heard at the creek; the dashed line is today.

At the creek 4 calls on 2 days, first Oct 29, last Oct 30

2400:00 — 0 calls001:00 — 0 calls02:00 — 0 calls03:00 — 0 calls304:00 — 0 calls05:00 — 0 calls06:00 — 0 calls607:00 — 0 calls08:00 — 4 calls09:00 — 0 calls910:00 — 0 calls11:00 — 0 calls12:00 — 0 calls1213:00 — 0 calls14:00 — 0 calls15:00 — 0 calls1516:00 — 0 calls17:00 — 0 calls18:00 — 0 calls1819:00 — 0 calls20:00 — 0 calls21:00 — 0 calls2122:00 — 0 calls23:00 — 0 callssunrisesunset
Fig. 2. When it calls: all detections by hour of day (today's sunrise and sunset shown).
23Oct 2 — 0 callsOct 3 — 0 callsOct 3Oct 4 — 0 callsOct 5 — 0 callsOct 6 — 0 callsOct 7 — 0 callsOct 8 — 0 callsOct 9 — 0 callsOct 10 — 0 callsOct 10Oct 11 — 0 callsOct 12 — 0 callsOct 13 — 0 callsOct 14 — 0 callsOct 15 — 0 callsOct 16 — 0 callsOct 17 — 0 callsOct 17Oct 18 — 0 callsOct 19 — 0 callsOct 20 — 0 callsOct 21 — 0 callsOct 22 — 0 callsOct 23 — 0 callsOct 24 — 0 callsOct 24Oct 25 — 0 callsOct 26 — 0 callsOct 27 — 0 callsOct 28 — 0 callsOct 29 — 1 callsOct 30 — 3 callsOct 31 — 0 callsOct 31
Fig. 3. Calls per day over the last 30 days.

Recordings

Clearest recording · Oct 30 8:06 am · 93% sure
spectrogram

From the encyclopedia

Wilson's warbler is a small New World warbler. It is greenish above and yellow below, with rounded wings and a long, slim tail. The male has a black crown patch; depending on the subspecies, that mark is reduced or absent in the female. It breeds across Canada and south through the western United States, and winters from Mexico south through much of Central America. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.
From Wikipedia, "Wilson's warbler", CC BY-SA 4.0.