Adelaide's warbler (''Setophaga adelaidae'') is a
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...
to the
archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.
Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...
of
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
belonging to the genus ''Setophaga'' of the family Parulidae. The species is named after Adelaide Swift, daughter of Robert Swift, the person who captured the first specimen.
Description
The ''S. adelaidae'' complex was originally considered a single species, with three populations occurring in
Barbuda
Barbuda (), is an island located in the eastern Caribbean forming part of the sovereign state of Antigua and Barbuda. It is located north of the island of Antigua and is part of the Leeward Islands of the West Indies. The island is a popula ...
, Puerto Rico and
St. Lucia. Each of these populations were regarded as a subspecies, ''S.a. subita'', ''S.a. adelaidae'' and ''S.a. delicata'' respectively. These subspecies were later elevated to species rank as the
Barbuda warbler
The Barbuda warbler (''Setophaga subita'') is a species of bird in the family Parulidae. It is Endemism, endemic to the island of Barbuda in Antigua and Barbuda. Its natural habitat is tropical dry shrubland near wetland areas. It is threatened b ...
(''Setophaga subita''), the
St. Lucia warbler
The Saint Lucia warbler (''Setophaga delicata'') is a species of bird in the family Parulidae.
It is Endemism, endemic to Saint Lucia. It was once considered a subspecies of the Adelaide's warbler.
References
Setophaga, Sa ...
(''Setophaga delicata'') and Adelaide's warbler.
In 2011, the American Ornithologists' Union reclassified the Parulidae, which resulted in ''D. adelaidae'' being transferred to genus ''Setophaga.''
Adelaide's warbler has gray upperparts with yellow underparts. The species has a yellow line above the eye and a white half-moon below it. Its average length is and its average weight is .
Adelaide's warbler occurs in the main island of Puerto Rico and in the island municipality of
Vieques
Vieques (; ), officially Isla de Vieques, is an island and municipality of Puerto Rico, in the northeastern Caribbean, part of an island grouping sometimes known as the Spanish Virgin Islands. Vieques is part of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ...
. The species occurs mainly in
dry forests in the southern region of Puerto Rico such as the
Guánica State Forest
The Guánica State Forest ( es, Bosque Estatal de Guánica), popularly known as the Guánica Dry Forest (Spanish: ''Bosque seco de Guánica'') is a subtropical dry forest located in southwest Puerto Rico. The area was designated as a forest reserv ...
, with some occurrences in the northern
moist forests and the central mountain range,
Cordillera Central Central Cordillera refers to the New Guinea Highlands.
Cordillera Central, meaning ''central range'' in Spanish, may refer to the following mountain ranges:
* Cordillera Central, Andes (disambiguation), several mountain ranges in South America
** ...
.
Adelaide's warbler is an
insectivore
A robber fly eating a hoverfly
An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects.
The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...
which
gleans
Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest. It is a practice described in the Hebrew Bible that became a legall ...
insects from the mid-top areas of the forest. It is also known to eat, although very rarely,
spider
Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species d ...
s and small
amphibians such as
coquí
Coquí is the common name for several species of small frogs in the genus ''Eleutherodactylus'' native to Puerto Rico. They are onomatopoeically named for the very loud mating call which the males of two species, the common coqui and the upland ...
s. The species usually travels in
mixed flocks which commonly include
Puerto Rican todies,
vireo
The vireos make up a family, Vireonidae, of small to medium-sized passerine birds found in the New World (Canada to Argentina, including Bermuda and the West Indies) and Southeast Asia. "Vireo" is a Latin word referring to a green migratory bir ...
s and other
New World warbler
The New World warblers or wood-warblers are a group of small, often colorful, passerine birds that make up the family Parulidae and are restricted to the New World. They are not closely related to Old World warblers or Australian warblers. Mos ...
s. Adelaide's warblers build nests at heights of 1 to 7 m in which the female deposits anywhere from 2 to 4 white eggs. The eggshells usually have small brown spots.
See also
*
Fauna of Puerto Rico
The fauna of Puerto Rico is similar to other island archipelago faunas, with high endemism, and low, skewed taxonomic diversity. Bats are the only extant native terrestrial mammals in Puerto Rico. All other terrestrial mammals in the area were in ...
*
List of birds of Puerto Rico
*
List of endemic fauna of Puerto Rico
*
List of Puerto Rican birds
*
List of Vieques birds
*
El Toro Wilderness
References
Further reading
*
*
Sociedad Ortinológica Puertorriqueña – Reinita Mariposera*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3178553
Adelaide's warbler
Endemic birds of Puerto Rico
Adelaide's warbler
Adelaide's warbler