Hooded Warbler - Ross Feldner

This masked musician is a small, vibrant songbird native to the eastern United States and Central America. Known for its striking plumage, distinctive vocalizations, and tail-flicking behavior, this forest dweller only eats insects. It is in constant motion, hopping along low branches to glean spiders, beetles, caterpillars and grasshoppers

The Hooded Warbler has a clever foraging trick, the flick of the tail. Both male and females flick their tail and fan it open to reveal bright white feathers which helps flush out insects.

They fly across or around the Gulf of Mexico to winter in Central America and the Caribbean. Unlike most migrants, males and females defend completely separate winter territories; males choose mature forests, while females use scrubby brush.

Hooded Warblers nest very close to the ground (under 5 feet) in bushes and shrubs. The nest is an open cup made from leaves and bark. Because they nest low in the understory, they are frequent targets of the parasitic Brown-headed Cowbird who lay eggs in the warbler's nest, forcing the warbler parents to raise their young.

Their song is a series of musical notes, which sound like: wheeta wheeta whee-tee-oh, for which a common mnemonic is "The red, the red T-shirt" or "Come to the woods or you won't see me".

In areas with protected woodlands or recovering wooded habitat, the Hooded Warbler population is stable and possibly increasing!