The Flame-throated Warbler, Oreothlypis gutturalis, is a small New World warbler

New World warbler

The New World warblers or wood-warblers are a group of small, often colorful, passerine birds restricted to the New World. They are not related to the Old World warblers or the Australian warblers....

. It is sometimes placed in the genus Vermivora.

Life history

This species is a resident breeder with a range restricted to the mountains of Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

 and western Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

, where it occurs in the canopy, woodland edges, and clearings with trees typically from 2100 m up to the timberline. On the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 slope in the wet season it may occur down to as low as 1400 m.

The deep cup nest, always sheltered above by epiphyte

Epiphyte

An epiphyte is a plant that grows upon another plant non-parasitically or sometimes upon some other object , derives its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and sometimes from debris accumulating around it, and is found in the temperate zone and in the...

s or mosses, is built in a tree or on a low bank. Two white eggs are laid between March and May.

The adult Flame-throated Warbler is 12 cm long and weighs 10 g. It has slate grey upper parts, with black on the back, lores, and around the eye. It has a vermilion throat and breast which contrast with the whitish belly. The sexes are almost identical, but the black mask is more extensive in the male. The young bird is browner above, duller below, and has a weak buff eyestripe and wing bars.

The Flame-throated Warbler feeds on caterpillar

Caterpillar

Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...

s, insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s and spider

Spider

Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...

s picked off the foliage with its sharp pointed bill. It is territorial when breeding, but will join feeding flocks of insectivorous bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s at other times.

The call of this warbler is a sharp chit. The song is a buzzing pi pipipipi shwaaaa.

Taxonomy

Recent genetic evidence will likely move this species into the genus Vermivora (Lovette, I. J., and E. Bermingham, 2001).

Articles

• Lovette, I. J., and E. Bermingham. (2002) WHAT IS A WOOD-WARBLER? MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF A MONOPHYLETIC PARULIDAE. Auk. vol. 119 no 3. pp. 695–714.

• Price, Jessica. (2006) Gauging the Ecological Health of a Costa Rican Cloud Forest: Birds as Bio-Indicators. Eukaryon, vol 2, pp. 104–109.

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