Length: About 5 inches.

Male: Smaller than the Myrtle Warbler, and at first glance, not unlike it in appearance, because each bird has a yellow rump, a striped breast, dark gray upper parts, and back and breast streaked with black. The head of the Magnolia Warbler, however, has no yellow patch, but a broad white line over the eye, black cheeks and forehead, and yellow under parts, (instead of white), which are heavily streaked with black. The wings have large white patches instead of bars; the tail is black, with a broad white band extending across the middle,—a distinguishing mark.

Female: Similar to male, but duller.

Song: “It is one of our full-voiced warblers, the song resembling the syllables wee-to, wee-to, wee-a-tee or witchi, witchi, witchi, tit, witchi-tit, witchi-tit, witchi-tit, the first four words deliberate and even, the last three hurried and higher pitched.... The song is louder than the yellow warbler’s.”[144]

Habitat: “Throughout the migration season, the Magnolia warbler is common throughout our orchards and shade trees, as well as woodlands.... In its nesting grounds, this warbler prefers coniferous growth, especially young spruces.”[144]

Range: Breeds from southern Mackenzie, Keewatin, northern Quebec, and Newfoundland to central Alberta, Saskatchewan, Minnesota, northern Michigan, and northern Massachusetts; in the mountains of West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York; winters from southern Mexico to Panama.

Mr. C. F. Stone in “Birds of New York” says: “Every hemlock-clad gully or hemlock woods where the trees are close and limbs intertwined afford suitable haunts for this lively and emphatic singer.... Among the smaller gullies 1 or 2 pairs may be found, and in the larger gullies it is not unusual to locate 12 or 15 pairs during the nesting period. In some of these situations the Magnolia does not seem to occur, perhaps because it is so persecuted by red squirrels and cowbirds. The latter seems to make a specialty of presenting this warbler with one or more of its eggs, generally puncturing the eggs of the Magnolia before leaving the nest.”[144]