Leiothlypis ruficapilla
Order Passeriformes
Family Parulidae
Adult.— Top of head ashy, with a chestnut crown-patch somewhat hidden; rest of upper parts brown, tinged with greenish in strong light; under parts bright yellow; ring around eye white or yellowish-white.
Immature.— Similar, but head like back; under parts not so bright.
Nest, on the ground.
Eggs, white, speckled with reddish-brown, chiefly at the larger end.
The Nashville Warbler is a common summer resident of portions of New York and New England. It is rare or absent in the neighborhood of New York city, except as a migrant, but breeds from Highland Falls northward. In Connecticut it is generally distributed, but is not common in the southern part of the State. In the upland of central and northern New England it is common. It arrives early in May, and leaves in September. It frequents land which is partially overgrown with small trees and bushes, and as it is one of the most active of an active family, it often leads a student a very long chase before he gets a glimpse of its ashy head and yellow under parts. Its song, however, is very characteristic. It begins like a Black and White Warbler’s, or a Redstart’s, and ends with two or three quick phrases that run down the scale, wee-tse wee-tse wee-tse, chiddle chiddie chiddle. Occasionally the ending is omitted, leaving a puzzling beginning which is hard to tell from a Redstart’s song.
The chestnut crown-patch of the Nashville is often difficult to make out, but no other warbler has bright yellow unstreaked under parts and an ashy head. The white eyering, too, is diagnostic, if one can get a view of it. The Connecticut Warbler, which occurs only in the fall, also has a whitish eye-ring, but its throat is not yellow.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)
Distinguishing Characters.- Adults with the head gray, the male, and often female, with a partially concealed chestnut crown-patch; no white tail-patches or wing-bars. Length (skin), 4.30; wing, 2.35; tail, 1.80; bill, .36.
Adult male, Spring.- Head and nape gray; a large chestnut crown-patch tipped with gray; eye-ring white, loral region white or, at times, yellow; back olive-green, the rump brighter; tail, externally, olive-green, without white patches but inner web of outer feathers sometimes margined with white; wings, externally, olive-green, no wing-bars, the bend yellow; under-parts and crissum yellow, the lower belly whitish.
Adult male, Fall.- Similar to last but head browner, crown-patch more broadly tipped, back grayer, breast with a brownish tinge; belly with whitish tips to feathers.
Young male, Fall.- Similar to adult 8 in Fall, but chestnut crown-patch much smaller or wanting entirely.
Adult female, Spring.- Similar to adult 8 in Spring, but with chestnut in crown less in extent or entirely wanting (absent in half the specimens examined); underparts paler.
Adult female, Fall.- Similar to last, but crown browner, the chestnut patch, when present, more broadly tipped, the back grayer, the breast tinged with brown, the feathers of belly tipped with white.
Young, Fall.- Similar to adult in Fall, but chestnut crown-patch rarely present.
Nestling.- Above dusky olive-green, sometimes broadly edged with dark brown; wing-coverts tipped with buff, forming two well-marked wing-bands; breast and flanks dusky brownish-yellow, belly clear pale yellow.
Frank M. Chapman – The Warblers of North America (1907)