The rufous-capped warbler (''Basileuterus rufifrons'') is a

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 ...

native from

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

south to

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

, rarely occurring as far north as southeastern

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and south

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. Birds in the southern part of the range are now split out as a separate species, as the chestnut-capped warbler ('' Basileuterus delattrii''). Rufous-capped warblers generally reach a length of about . They are plain-olive to olive-gray, with white underbellies, bright yellow chests and throats, and a distinctive facial pattern consisting of a rufous cap, a white eyebrow-line (or superciliary), a dark eye-line fading into a rufous cheek, and a white malar marking. The bill is rather stout for a warbler, the wings are round and stubby, and the tail is long, often raised at a high angle and flicked. While rufous-capped warblers are generally birds of tropical shrubby highlands, North American sightings tend to be in oak woodland canyon bottoms, near running water, while the birds stay low in dense vegetation. The courtship song of the rufous-capped warbler is a rapid, accelerating series of chipping notes ('), somewhat reminiscent of the

rufous-crowned sparrow The rufous-crowned sparrow (''Aimophila ruficeps'') is a small American sparrow. This passerine is primarily found across the Southwestern United States and much of the interior of Mexico, south to the transverse mountain range, and to the Pac ...

, while the call note is a hard ' or ', often repeated. Like other New World warblers, this species does not actually warble. Male rufous‐capped warblers have complex songs with many syllable types shared both within and between males’ repertoires. The males also show seasonal, temporal and annual variation in their song use. Rufous-capped warblers primarily feed on insects and spiders, foraging through dense brush and scanning close to the ground for movement. They are not generally known to flycatch from perches.

References

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External links

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Rufous-capped warbler
at Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan) * {{Taxonbar, from=Q791200 rufous-capped warbler rufous-capped warbler Birds of Central America Birds of Colombia rufous-capped warbler Taxa named by William Swainson