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Magnolia or Black and Yellow Warbler
Adult male--Upper parts black, a white patch on the wing; rump yellow; crown ashy blue; a short white line over and back of eye; cheek black; under parts yellow, with heavy black streaks.
Adult female--Very similar, but less brilliant. Length--5.12.
Breeding Range--The higher parts of the Alleghanies, from Virginia northward; northern New England to northern Michigan, northward.
The nest is composed of twigs (principally hemlock), grass, pine needles, and weeds, lined with fine roots and hair-like fibre. It is usually placed on the horizontal branch of a coniferous tree, from three to thirty-five feet from the ground. The eggs, numbering 4 to 5, are white or creamy white, blotched and spotted (sometimes clouded at the larger end) with hazel, brown, and lilac wreathed round the larger end. Size--.65 x .48.
The nest is generally to be found on the edge of paths or clearings, in woods of firs and hemlocks; "sometimes the nests are built in the tops of young hemlocks, ten to fifteen feet up, or in the heart of the forest, thirty-five feet above the ground."
The breeding season begins about the beginning of June.