Features: The Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) is a small songbird of the new world wood-warbler family. Both females and males are grey, with white undersides and distinctive yellow wing patches and crown. While females have light grey feathers surrounding the eyes and throat, males have a characteristic black throat and cheek. Their preferred breeding habitat is areas of early successional vegetation, found primarily on field edges, hydro or utility right-of-ways, or recently logged areas. On their wintering grounds, they are found within open woodlands at high elevations of 1,500-3,000 metres in Central America and northern South America.

An unusual feature of this species’ nesting biology is that it will mate with Blue-winged Warblers (Vermivora pinus), regularly producing hybrids with characters from both species. This hybridization with the more common Blue-winged Warbler is one of the threats to Golden-winged Warbler populations.

Status: Special Concern Provincially, Threatened Nationally

Range: The breeding range of the Golden-winged Warbler includes southern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, as well as the north-eastern United States. Their wintering range extends from Central America south into north-western South America. Range Maps

Threats: A decrease of early successional scrub habitat within its breeding range in eastern North America poses a strong threat to populations of the Golden-winged Warbler. Hybridization with Blue-winged Warbler is also a major factor that is causing regional extirpation of this species, as the Blue-Winged Warbler becomes the dominant warbler over time where the two species hybridize. Nest parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) in certain areas in the United States may also be a threat to some populations (Confer et al. 2003).

Protection: The Golden-winged Warbler is protected under the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act. A national management plan is in preparation for this species.

Text Sources: COSEWIC 2006

Last Modified Date: June 2008