Arrowhead Warbler

© Dubi Shapiro

© Rick Bowers

Birdfinding.info ⇒  Most reliably found at wet mountain forest sites such as Hardwar Gap and Ecclesdown Road.  Generally present, but not always conspicuous, at most of Jamaica’s other frequently visited humid woodland sites, such as Rocklands Bird Sanctuary, Stewart Town, Marshall’s Pen, and San San.

Arrowhead Warbler

Setophaga pharetra

Family: Parulidae

Endemic to Jamaica, where it is locally common in mountain and foothills forests and woodlands.

Identification

Male is distinctive: heavily streaked black and white both above and below.  No other warbler is as extensively streaked as the male Arrowhead.

Female is similar but paler, with fewer, more diffuse streaks that are grayer than the male’s.  The female’s wings, rump, and tail are suffused brownish.

Arrowhead Warbler, male.  (Ecclesdown Road, Jamaica; February 11, 2015.)  © Knut Hansen

Arrowhead Warbler, male.  (Silver Hill Gap, Jamaica; January 13, 2018.)  © Charley Hesse TROPICAL BIRDING

Juvenile is plain and indistinct, brownish or olive, darker above and paler below, not easily identifiable except in context of its location and the presence of adults.  With the first molt, it quickly becomes recognizable as it develops the adult pattern.

Arrowhead Warbler, immature.  (Marshall’s Pen, Jamaica; July 8, 2008.)  © Steve Metz

Arrowhead Warbler, female.  (Blue Mountains, Jamaica; March 1, 2018.)  © Dubi Shapiro

Arrowhead Warbler, female.  (Hardwar Gap, Jamaica; February 12, 2015.)  © Knut Hansen

Arrowhead Warbler, immature.  (Stewart Town, Jamaica; June 28, 2017.)  © Rob Van Epps

Arrowhead Warbler, immature.  (Marshall’s Pen, Jamaica; July 7, 2008.)  © Steve Metz

Voice.  Calls are wet-sounding or metallic chip notes, often given insistently in series:Typical song is described as “six tswee notes, the last rising, followed by a further three tswee notes, the last again rising, and terminating with either a jumble of notes, the last rising, or, in their place, three descending notes.”  (Raffaele et al. 1998)

Cf. Black-and-white Warbler.  The northern migrant Black-and-white Warbler, which is common on Jamaica from September through March, is similar but much less heavily streaked than Arrowhead, and can also be distinguished by its characteristic tree-creeping behavior.

Notes

Monotypic species.

References

eBird. 2018. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, N.Y. http://www.ebird.org. (Accessed December 24, 2018.)

Haynes-Sutton, A., A. Downer, R. Sutton, and Y.-J. Rey-Millet. 2009. A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Jamaica. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.

Raffaele, H., J. Wiley, O. Garrido, A. Keith, and J. Raffaele. 1998. A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.