Setophaga discolor
Order Passeriformes
Family Parulidae
♂ Adult male.— Upper parts with a strong greenish tinge, when seen in strong light; when the bird is seen from above, reddish-brown markings show in the middle of the back; forehead, a line over eye, and a spot below eye yellow; spot in front of eye and stripe below eye black; wing-bars yellowish; breast bright yellow with black streaks down the sides.
♀ Adult female .— With less, sometimes no reddish-brown on the back.
Immature.— Upper parts olive-green; under parts yellow; no wing-bars.
Nest, in a bush or low tree, generally lined with horse-hair.
Eggs, white, speckled with dark brown, chiefly about the larger end.
The Prairie Warbler is a summer resident of southern New England and Long Island, but is rare in northern New Jersey and in the lower Hudson Valley; it is not found north of Massachusetts, except in a few stations in the Merrimac Valley, nor does it occur, so far as I know, in the interior of the State. It is found in dry, scrubby second-growth, especially on sandy soil. It is abundant on Martha’s Vineyard and on parts of Cape Cod, but rare or only locally common over most of its range. It arrives early in May, and leaves in September.
The Prairie Warbler’s song is a series of sharp, thin notes running rapidly up the scale. They may be distinguished from the Parula’s notes by their thinness; the Parula’s voice is wheezy, nor would it be often heard in the hot, dry situations in which the Prairie Warbler delights.
The Canada Warbler, the Black and Yellow [Magnolia Warbler], and the rare Cape May also have yellow under parts streaked with black. Only in the Prairie Warbler, however, is the black confined to the sides. The Canada Warbler, moreover, chooses low, wet places, even on migration, and in summer the breeding areas of the two birds hardly overlap.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)