Eric Jones, age 11, of Monroe, La., for his question:
ARE THERE MANY KINDS OF WARBLERS?
Warbler is the popular name of the small migratory songbirds of the wood warbler family. They live in the Americas from the tropics to the far north. There are more than 150 species and subspecies of warblers.
Most people enjoy the quick movements and abrupt, high pitched songs of the warblers. Some kinds have fine singing voices while others only sing a few weak, lisping notes.
Actually, warblers are often hard to see because they are so small and they keep close to the foliage of trees and bushes. Their feathers are of many beautiful colors.
Most of the warblers are about five and a half inches long. Many of the birds winter in South and Central America and migrate through the United States late in the spring. In May, they begin to appear in woods, in city parks and in trees near buildings
Lots of the members of the warbler family go far for their summer nesting. Some warblers go as far north as the Hudson Bay and the Yukon Territory in Canada.
Warblers build their nests in trees and bushes or on the ground. The nests are usually cup shaped and loosely built of twigs and grasses woven together, but some are compact structures of plant down.
The female warbler lays from three to six eggs, which are whitish with brown markings at the larger end.
Some of the better known warblers are the yellow warbler, the black and white warbler and the yellow rumped warbler. Yellow warblers are quite common in city parks in many of the United States. The black and whit e warblers like to creep along the branches of trees while the yellow rumped warbler is a bit bolder.
Another well known warbler is the American redstart. It is colored a striking black with salmon markings and looks somewhat like a small oriole. It is one of the most active and graceful of the American warblers.
Blackburnian warblers have bright orange throats and are quite common. Two other common warblers are named for their colors: the black throated green warbler and the black throated blue warbler.
Warblers help farmers by killing insects that destroy fruits and strip trees of their leaves. Warblers search in tiny cracks of the bark and in fruit buds for insects that might escape larger birds.
An especially interesting bird that belongs to the family of warblers is the ovenbird. It looks somewhat like a small thrush and is about six inches long.
The ovenbird has a brownish olive green back, dull orange crown and a white breast spotted with black. Its song sounds like the word "teacher," repeated with increasing loudness. The ovenbird is often called the "teacher bird."
You'll find the ovenbird nesting from Oklahoma to Georgia and north to Manitoba and Labrador. Its name comes from the shape of its nest, which looks somewhat like an old fashioned rounded oven.
The ovenbird hides its nest on the forest floor. It lays four to six white eggs.