Length: A little over 5½ inches.

Male: Forehead and cheeks black, giving the effect of a black mask; crown, nape, throat, upper breast, and sides a beautiful chestnut-red; a patch of buff at each side of the neck; lower breast and belly buff; back brownish-gray, with black streaks; wings and tail brownish-gray; two broad white wing-bars; tail with white spots near tip of outer feathers.

Female: Upper parts grayish-brown, streaked with black; under parts buff, breast and sides washed with reddish-brown; crown brownish; two white wing-bars.

Song: “A monotonous, lisping song, with perhaps a few more musical, ringing notes.”[155]

Habitat: “The Bay-breasted warbler usually frequents the tops of trees during migration, being especially fond of chestnuts, oaks, and hickories just as the leaves are bursting. It is also found in orchards and about the shade trees of streets and parks as well as in the midst of woodlands.... It prefers the upper portions of trees except in cold or stormy weather when it descends and feeds among the underbrush.”[156] William Brewster says that they live in dense woods, especially among the pines and other cone-bearing trees.

Range: Eastern North America. Breeds in north-central and southern Canada, northern Maine, and mountains of New Hampshire; winters in Panama and Colombia; irregular on the Atlantic slope and south of Virginia. One of our less common warblers.