Fun Pine Warbler Facts For Kids

The pine warbler (Setophaga pinus) is named such because they hardly live away from pine trees. They are also hard to identify when away from their breeding areas. Pine Warblers are the only known wood-warbler to regularly feed on seeds during the winter and fall months. The adult male has olive green underpants, with yellow breasts, white lower belly, and under tail coverts. These North American birds have a yellow eye-ring around their eyes, two white wing bars, and large white spots on their tail feathers. The adult females are similar to males but duller in comparison, with small tail spots. They are often dull brownish colored and buff with very little to no yellow or olive colors on them. These North American birds are found in the northeastern region of North America in the pinewood forests. Dendroica pinus has a stable and increasing population. Some pine warblers are permanent residents of South Florida and live in pine trees in pine forests. Some are known to migrate to northeastern Mexico or some islands in the Caribbean.

On one occasion, some pine warblers were found in Columbia in South America as part of a mixed-species feeding flock along with the Tennessee warblers and lackburnian. They have a loud musical trilling sound, also known as a pine warbler call.

After reading about these birds of North America, you may also read about robin and blue grosbeak.

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What type of animal is a pine warbler?

Pine warblers are a type of bird that is found in the northeastern part of North America only. They are somewhat permanent residents of this region. As the name suggests, they are found in the pinewood forests of this region.

What class of animal does a pine warbler belong to?

Pine warblers belong to the birds (aves) class of animals. They lay eggs and have small bodies with wings and feathers.

How many pine warblers are there in the world?

They are found in an area of approximately 5,000,000 miles, which is a large region. The exact population may be difficult to gauge due to this reason. However, some studies have proven that their population is stable and increasing.

Where does a pine warbler live?

Pine warblers live in pinewood forests, the pine barren of North America. They love the sandy barrens of the pitch pine with scrub oaks undergrowth, southern longleaf pine forests, jack pine barrens, and similar regions. They are sometimes found on cypress and cedars. During winter, they are found in heavily wooded bottomlands, orchards, thickets and woodland edges. True to their name, the nest of a pine warbler is found primarily on pine trees.  

What is a pine warbler's habitat?

They are found in regions of eastern North America. Pine warbler habitats include the southern region of Manitoba, Quebec, and Ontario in Canada as well as Florida and the southernmost regions of Texas. Their habitat can also be found near the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada, while the western range runs through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas. Pine warbler migration takes place during the winter when they leave the US and Canada and migrate to southeastern regions of the US. Their breeding season takes place in late April. Unlike other birds, in winter pine warblers remain in the southeast and are the first to return northwards.

Who do pine warblers live with?

Pine warblers are found in groups and solitary. They are also known to migrate with mixed bird groups. They are monogamous throughout their lives.

How long does a pine warbler live?

The pine warbler life span can extend to six years. Not much is known about the number of years they live for. The oldest recorded individual was six years old.

How do they reproduce?

Not much is known about the courtship of pine warblers. But some male guarding is known to happen and males are known to be aggressive towards each other around the breeding season. They are believed to be monogamous throughout the breeding season and are not known to mate with others. Whereas it is unknown if the couple remains monogamous for the rest of their lives or not. They start building nests in late March, early April or early June in the north. The pine warbler nest is built high above ground level. Although, it is not known whether they might also build some nests on the ground.

The nests are built on the horizontal branches at a fork or at the end. They are compact cup-shaped nests built with strips of steams, leaves, twigs, and more. They are bound with silk from caterpillars or spider webs. The complete nest-building process is done by females mostly. The males may accompany them while singing. The females will lay a clutch of three to five white spotted eggs during the breeding season. The females will take care of the incubation of the eggs too. The males will take care of feeding the female during this incubation period of 12 to 13 days. The newborns are taken care of by the male and female together. The pair may have one to three clutches during the breeding season every year.

What is their conservation status?

The conservation status for pine warblers is of the Least Concern as these birds are found in abundance in their region. Their population is said to be stable and increasing.

What do pine warblers look like?

Pine warblers are larger than most wood warblers. The males are more brightly colored than the females and juveniles. The males have plumage with yellow and olive colors. They have yellow orbital feathers and yellow lores, malar, breast and throat. Pine warbler winter plumage and pine warbler fall plumage are both drab in appearance, making their identification difficult in areas away from their natural habitat. These birds have white bellies, two white wing bars, dark legs and a thin, relatively long beak.

How cute are they?

They are beautifully colored creatures with colors like olive, yellow and white. They are also known for their trilling sound while singing. They can be called cute and pretty.

How do they communicate?

The female pine warbler doesn't sing. Males are known to use their vocal cords throughout the year for singing and calling. The frequency of pine warbler sound increases during the mating season and the musical trill sounds like that of a chipping sparrow. Male pine warblers song comprises of a fast trill of ten to 30 notes usually on one pitch, much similar to a chipping sparrow.

How big is a pine warbler?

Pine warblers are a small bird with a length of 5.51 in (13 cm) and a wingspan of 8.66 in (21 cm). This brown headed bird is larger than most wood warblers.

How fast can a pine warbler fly?

Pine warblers can fly fast. However, the exact speed and distance they cover is unknown because most of them spend their time around one region.

How much does a pine warbler weigh?

Pine warblers range of weight is around 0.02 lb (0.42 oz). Their body mass may be between 0.02-0.03 lb (0.42-0.48 oz).

What are the male and female names of the species?

The male and female warblers do not have a specific name. They are known as male pine warbler and female pine warbler respectively.

What would you call a baby pine warbler?

A baby pine warbler will be called a juvenile pine warbler.

What do they eat?

Pine warbler diet includes seeds, berries, insects and spiders. They mostly eat spiders and insects. They forage for food on the mid or higher levels of the tree trunks in the pine tree regions. When they can't find insects and spiders, they will eat pine seeds, fruits, and berries. They are known to get all their hydration from the food they eat since they nest away from water sources.

Are they dangerous?

Pine warblers are not dangerous to humans in any way. They are cute little songbirds who love their habitat of pinewood forest too much to live outside of it.

Would they make a good pet?

They would make an ideal pet as they are little, cute and nonaggressive birds who love to stay in one place. They do not require too much care.

Did you know...

Pine warblers are attracted to birdbaths or outdoor water running systems. They love the sound of dripping water. They love eating black oil sunflower seeds too. Apart from pine trees, these birds can be found on cypress, oak, sycamore, and willows. They are called the butterflies of the bird world. Northern pine warblers are known to migrate to the southeast region of America, whereas the southwest pine warblers will stay in the same region. The female brown-headed cowbirds may remove the eggs of the pine warbler and lay its eggs there or just add their own eggs to the pine warbler's clutch. Warblers can be seen foraging slowly on tree trunks and branches by poking their bills into the pine cones. Pine warblers are small songbirds of the new world warbler family. One of the sub-species, jack pine warbler has been named after Jared Potter Kirtland, an amateur naturalist.

Pine warbler vs goldfinch

The pine warbler and goldfinch are often confused for one and another due to their golden yellow color. Warblers are yellow in color with an olive-colored back and the American goldfinch is bright yellow-colored with a black forehead, black wings with white markings. They both have white spots on their tails.

How do you attract pine warblers?

The best time to attract pine warblers is during the winter when they eat seeds and berries. Keeping suet is a great way to attract them, as suet is similar to the insects they eat. You can smear suet on the bark of trees or keep suet cakes in feeders to attract them.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! Learn more about some other birds including hermit thrush, or kiwi.

You can even occupy yourself at home by drawing one of our pine warbler coloring pages.

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