Adelaide's warbler (''Setophaga adelaidae''), or reinita mariposera (in

Puerto Rican Spanish Puerto Rican Spanish is the variety of the Spanish language as characteristically spoken in Puerto Rico and by millions of people of Puerto Rican descent living in the United States and elsewhere. It belongs to the group of Caribbean Spanish ...

) is a

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

belonging to the genus ''Setophaga'' of the family

Parulidae The New World warblers or wood-warblers are a group of small, often colorful, passerine birds that make up the family Parulidae and are restricted to the New World. The family contains 120 species. They are not closely related to Old World warb ...

(New World warblers).

Taxonomy

The ''S. adelaidae'' complex was originally considered a single species, with three populations occurring in

Barbuda Barbuda (; ) is an island and dependency located in the eastern Caribbean forming part of the twin-island state of Antigua and Barbuda as an autonomous entity. Barbuda is located approximately north of Antigua. The only settlements on the i ...

, Puerto Rico and

St. Lucia Saint Lucia is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. Part of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), Saint Vincent ...

. Each of these populations were regarded as a subspecies, ''S.a. subita'', ''S.a. adelaidae'' and ''S.a. delicata'' respectively. These subspecies were later elevated to species rank as the Barbuda warbler (''Setophaga subita''), the St. Lucia warbler (''Setophaga delicata'') and Adelaide's warbler. In 2011, the American Ornithologists' Union reclassified the Parulidae, which resulted in ''D. adelaidae'' being transferred to the genus ''Setophaga.'' The species is named after Maria Antoinette Adelaide Florentia del Carmen Swift Washburne (1829–1884), daughter of Robert Swift, the person who obtained the first specimen.

Description

Adelaide's warbler has gray upperparts with yellow underparts. The species has a yellow line above the eye and a white half-moon below it. Its average length is and its average weight is .

Distribution and habitat

Adelaide's warbler occurs only in the main island of Puerto Rico and in the island municipality of

Vieques Vieques (; ), officially Isla de Vieques, is an island, town and municipality of Puerto Rico, and together with Culebra, it is geographically part of the Spanish Virgin Islands. Vieques lies about east of the mainland of Puerto Rico, measuri ...

. The species occurs mainly in

dry forests The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...

in the southern region of Puerto Rico such as the

Guánica State Forest The Guánica State Forest (), popularly known as the Guánica Dry Forest (Spanish: ''Bosque seco de Guánica'') is a subtropical dry forest located in southwest Puerto Rico. The area was designated as a forest reserve in 1919 and a United Nation ...

, with some occurrences in the northern moist forests and the central mountain range, the

Cordillera Central Central Cordillera refers to the New Guinea Highlands. Cordillera Central, meaning ''central range'' in Spanish, may refer to the following mountain ranges: * Cordillera Central, Andes (disambiguation), several mountain ranges in South America ** ...

Diet and ecology

Adelaide's warbler is an

insectivore file:Common brown robberfly with prey.jpg, A Asilidae, robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivore, carnivorous animal or plant which eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the Entomophagy ...

which gleans insects from the mid-top areas of the forest. It is also known to eat, although very rarely,

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

s and small

amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

s such as

coquí Coquí is a common name for several species of small frogs in the genus ''Eleutherodactylus'' native to Puerto Rico. They are Onomatopoeia, onomatopoeically named for the very loud mating call which the males of two species, the common coqui an ...

s. The species usually travels in mixed flocks which commonly include Puerto Rican todies, vireos and other

New World warbler The New World warblers or wood-warblers are a group of small, often colorful, passerine birds that make up the family Parulidae and are restricted to the New World. The family contains 120 species. They are not closely related to Old World warb ...

Reproduction

Adelaide's warblers build nests at heights of 1 to 7 m in which the female deposits anywhere from 2 to 4 white eggs. The eggshells usually have small brown spots.

Taxonomy

Description

Distribution and habitat

Diet and ecology

Reproduction

See also

References

Further reading