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American Redstart Stetophaga ruticilla Family: Parulidae (Warblers)  |
Description: The mature male has orange-red sides of breast, wing and tail patches, a white mid belly and part of the under tail, and the rest of the plumage is black. Young males begin to change their color pattern in their second year. Both the females and young birds have yellow sides of breast, wing and tail patches, white underparts, and olive upper parts with grayer head. American Redstarts fan their tail wide open while chasing insects, flitting around like a butterfly. It can whip out of a tree, snap its bill on an insect, and then turn and whip back. Nesting: The female builds the nest in a pronged tree or shrub fork around 4 - 30 feet above the ground. The nest is a cup woven of fibers, roots and stems decorated outside with lichens, birch bark, plant down, and reinforced with spider silk. One observer reported that a female American Redstart made 650 - 700 trips with materials to build her nest in under 3 days.The female usually lays a single brood of 2-4 eggs, and encounters the same predicament as the Yellow Warbler of the trespassing Brown-headed Cowbird. She solves this in the same way: building a nest on top of the Cowbird's eggs. Range: (N. American months are from May - September) Migrates from South America to breed as far north as Canada.
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Size: 5 inches Diet: Insects Habitat: Young deciduous (trees with leaves, not needles) woods, shrubs, gardens and parks Song: Songs vary. Song rate may be about 6 songs/minute. Usually the songs are a series of similar notes ending with a louder note at a different pitch. |
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