Ricci's Warbler
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Ricci’s
Warbler, Setophaga riccii
L 12-13 cm, WS 19-21 cm, Family: Parulidae
IUCN Conservation Status: Near threatened (NT)
Description:
Small,
active songbird with large head and slender build. Black head with white throat
and eye patch, yellow supercilium forms a bent “7” pattern. Undersides white
with black streaking along flanks, wings and tail dark with white linings and
two white wingbars. Back olive green, unstreaked. Bill sturdy but thin. Non-breeding
plumage duller, and females similar but duller overall, often lack streaking. Unlikely
to be confused with other native warblers, best distinguished by white throat.
Voice:
Many
song types, and variable across range. The most common song is a series of
clear whistles, usually around 3 notes, followed by a buzzy weazy weazy
weaze. A second common song is similar, but more varied, often lacking the
introductory whistles and ending in a buzzle downward warble. Other song types
occur, and Ricci’s Warblers have been recorded mimicking other warblers,
especially the songs of Yellow-sided and Crescent Warblers. A variety of calls
include quick and buzzy chips and zeets.
Range and Habitat:
Summer
range includes most Novasolan forests, including Kosatka Island. Occasionally
found in the Twin River Basin and Fairweather Sound region, usually near
plantations or orchards. Avoids areas without canopy trees. Migrates to spend
winter in California. Prefers mature forest ecosystems with dense
foliage and thick canopy like temperate rainforests, coastal conifer forests,
lowland deciduous, and montane conifer forests, with affinities for
Coopers-fir, spruce, hemlocks, firs, cedars, pines, and redwoods. Can be found
at high elevations, up to the tree line, and as low as sea level. During
migration can be found in more varied environments.
Discussion:
Though
common, the Ricci’s Warbler might be the least observed native warbler. These
bold little birds prefer to stay in the canopy amid the leaves and needles
where they can be difficult to spot. Often the best places to see Ricci’s
Warblers are at high elevations and steep terrain, where the treetops are lower
and can be looked down on. As challenging as seeing one may be, hearing one is
much easier. Ricci’s Warblers are quite vocal with distinct, buzzy songs that
ring out through the forest as males sing out from high points like the tops of
trees. Their songs and calls are staples of dense forests and mountains in
Novasolan summer.
Ricci’s
Warblers mainly eat insects and other invertebrates which they pick from foliage
like the undersides of leaves, and their preferred food sources include
caterpillars, flies, beetles, moths, and spiders. Active foragers, they move
quickly through the canopy from branch to branch, hopping and fliting about,
and they may also fly out to catch insects on the wing, called “sallying”. They
may supplement their diet with fruits, especially in the winter. Birds in
eastern populations seem more willing to forage lower, utilizing the shrub
layer and understory, and more likely to sally for flies. Though rare, Ricci’s
Warblers may be found in plantations and orchards around Fairweather Sound and
the Twin Rivers, and because of the limited canopy height, these birds may forage
all the way to the ground.
Ricci’s
Warbler breed in Novasola, usually arriving in late May and leaving in mid- to
late August. When males arrive in the spring they establish territories, mostly
through song, which they also use to attract mates. It is common to hear
multiple neighboring males singing back and forth over one another in a sort of
vocal fight called counter-singing. Ricci’s Warbler territories are relatively
small, so it is possible to hear many males nearby to one another, yet males
will defend their territories aggressively, and they will even attack birds of
other warbler species. These warblers form monogamous pairs, but often pair
with new individuals each breeding season. They build nests in areas of dense canopy
vegetation, often resting on horizontal limbs tens of feet off the ground, and
in some cases nearly 100 meters up in large trees like redwoods and
Coopers-firs.
Named
for 18th century Italian explorer Francisco Primo Ricci, the first
European to discover Novasola, the Ricci’s Warbler was first described by Georg
Wilhelm Steller, the German biologist who famously explored parts of Alaska. He
found a female specimen in western Alaska in 1741 and called it an Olive Backed
Flycatcher, Muscicapa virens. Forty some years later the bird was
renamed Steller’s Warbler in his honor. In 1903 Richard Reichwald, familiar
with the Steller’s Warbler description, observed breeding male warblers on
Novasola and did not realize these were the same bird, and so listed them as a
new species, Ricci’s Warbler, Dendroica riccii. It’s this common name that persists, and, due to the original Latin name being taken, the scientific name that persists as well. In recent years there has been an international push to change all eponymous bird names in an attempt to remove "ownership" of species and not to honor problematic historical figures; those who wish to see this bird's common name changed prefer the name "Canopy Warbler".
Though
warblers can be difficult to tell apart, especially when they move so quickly
through the vegetation, they often give clues to their ID. The Ricci’s Warbler
can best be distinguished by its buzzy, warbling song, and by its habit of
staying within the mid- to upper canopy. They are shorter distance migrants
than other warblers as well, wintering along the Pacific coasts of California
and Oregon, where they become much more visible, often visiting backyard
feeders.
“These
birds are at once secretive and vociferous, cryptic and obvious. Seldom does the
warbler come down from its treetop domain, a world apart where it finds so few a
companion, but incessant is its song, ethereal and dark. Its tones ring down to
the forest floor where it blends so well into the darkness and mist so common there,
betraying the bird’s relative location, and the species’ relative numbers. And
great those numbers must be, for the warbler’s song is pervasive throughout any
mature woods across the Fastwaters, yet persistent, patient, and perceptive
must one be to catch anything more than a glimpse of these birds.” – Native Birds
of Novasola, 1912
“Among today’s excitements was the acquisition of a specimen by Mr. Farr, which he procured whilst hunting for grouse, a specimen he promptly brought to me for study. A male warbler of bold patterning, this bird is no doubt the same I’ve taken to calling Ricci’s Bird, until now known only to me by its song. Its striking plumage is reminiscent of the Townsend’s Warbler of the mainland, but notably lacking any black coloration on the throat, where instead is only white. Mr. Farr claims to have shot the bird from a redcedar in the gully south of camp, where, as he says, there are hundreds of the birds at even intervals. His account affirms my own observations that these warblers, solitary they may be, will crowd their neighbors for territory such that each male might only have room to defend a handful of trees. Or so it sounds, at least here along the Chidkayook, where the bird’s vocalizations are inescapable.” – Expedition log, August 1, 1903