Dappled light often makes it difficult to notice this naturally-dappled, five-inch warbler that recently arrived from the south. It’s a Magnolia Warbler (Setophaga magnolia) and a male judging by the broad white “arm band.”
He’s not in a magnolia tree, which he doesn’t especially find attractive, nor is he colored like a magnolia. In fact, he usually prefers evergreens in the spring.
These birds are apparently misnamed. The story is that Alexander Wilson, the “Father of American Ornithology,” collected one of these warblers from a magnolia tree in Mississippi in 1810. The species had not been officially named, so he gave it the common name of “Black-and-Yellow Warbler,” which was appropriately descriptive.
However, Wilson also gave the warbler the scientific species name “magnolia,” apparently based on the incorrect assumption that the bird was attracted to magnolias. “Magnolia Warbler” was easier to say than “Black-and-Yellow Warbler,” and the birds’ common name officially became “Magnolia Warbler” after being used for decades.
In fact, to confuse things further, in the spring and fall you might see a birder look up toward the top of a spruce tree and hear him say: “There’s a magnolia!” He would not be referring to a magnolia flower growing on a spruce tree. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on May 13, 2024.)