Acadia National Park

Description  ADULT Has mostly buff-brown upperparts, including wings and tail. Head is buffy overall, but with long black eyestripe (reaching back to nape) and equally long and parallel dark line on side of crown. Throat and underparts are warm buff, flushed peachy orange on breast. Legs are pale pink. IMMATURE Very similar to adult.

Dimensions  Length: 5 1/2" (14 cm)

Habitat  Locally common summer visitor (present mainly May-Aug) to dense mixed or deciduous forests; often associated with steep hillsides. Winters mainly in Central America.

Observation Tips  Easy to overlook, so learn and listen for its song to detect its presence in suitable habitat.

Range  Rocky Mountains, Texas, California, New England, Plains, Florida, Mid-Atlantic, Eastern Canada, Southeast, Southwest, Great Lakes

Voice  Song is a rapid, almost insectlike trilling rattle; call is a sharp tsip.

Discussion  Unobtrusive, stocky, and relatively long-billed wood-warbler with understated body plumage, but rather striking markings on head. Forages among foliage for insects, particularly caterpillars, often searching carefully among hanging tangles of dead leaves. Sexes are similar.

Migration Info  Worm-eating Warblers are found almost exclusively in undisturbed forests in their winter range. They depend on a well-developed layer of leaf litter, where they employ their unique style of feeding by probing and opening rolled leaves. The highest winter population densities are reached along the Caribbean slope of Central America and in the Greater Antilles. Unfortunately, forest destruction in these regions is a serious threat to this species. Worm-eating Warblers arrive along the U.S. Gulf coast as early as mid-March; the peak passage of this species through the Gulf coast region and Florida is in early April.