Adelaide's Warblers: Caribbean American and Puerto Rico Five-One Icons

Summary: That Adelaide's warblers associate with Caribbean American heritage month June 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One icons argues for a similarly iconic acclaim.

Adelaide's warbler (Dendroica adelaidae); Vieques Island (Isla de Vieques), off southeastern coast of Puerto Rico; Monday, April 21, 2008, 11:49: Jaro Nemčok, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Endemic Adelaide's warblers, elfin-woods warblers, Puerto Rican todies and Puerto Rican vireos act amicably with one another and arguably as Caribbean American heritage month June 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One statehood icons.

Puerto Rico, la isla del encanto ("the island of enchantment"), and Vieques, the Commonwealth's isla nena ("little girl island"), boast the world's only Adelaide's warbler populations. Adelaide's warblers, commemorative of conchologist, merchant, ornithologist Robert Swift's (1796-May 5/6, 1872) only daughter, claims habitat niches below 1,640.42-foot (500-meter) elevations and other than the east. They divulge mixed-species flocking for foraging from succulent and woody plant bases through 32.81-plus-foot (10-plus-meter) heights above brushy, forested, scrubby, woodland floors and for territorial defense.

The Parulidae (from Latin parus, "chickadee" and -ula, "little" and Greek -ειδής, "-like") New World and wood warbler family member enjoys insect larval and pupal prey.

Physically and sexually mature Adelaide's warblers, as year-round couples, fit annual breeding seasons from January, February or March through June or July into 10-plus-year life cycles.

Physically and sexually mature female Adelaide's warblers each gestate one two- to four-egg seasonal brood for bromeliad- or moss-covered, cuplike, feather-, hair- and stalk-lined, woven-grass nests. Succulent branch or woody branch and twig forks at 0.49- to 22.96-foot (0.15- to 7-meter) heights above respective cactus or tree bases hold Adelaide's warbler nests. Each breeding season impels Adelaide's warbler mothers-to-be to install 2.01- to 2.24-inch- (5.1- to 5.7-centimeter-) deep nests with 2.09- to 2.52-inch (5.3- to 6.4-centimeter) outer diameters.

Warbler mothers-to-be juggle chocolate-spotted, red-brown-flecked green-white to white eggs into 1.42- to 1.49-inch- (3.6- to 3.8-centimeter-) deep, 1.49- to 1.77-inch (3.8- to 4.5-centimeter) diameter nest interiors.

Adelaide's warbler mothers-to-be keep their 0.18- to 0.64-inch (4.5- to 16.3-millimeter) by 0.43- to 0.47-inch (11 to 12-millimeter) eggs incubated 15 days before co-parentally brooding hatchlings.

Adelaide's warblers look downy as hatchlings, sighted as three- to five-day-olds and feathered as six- to eight-day-olds and locate nearby as dependent 10- to 70-day-old fledglings. Mature females versus immature female and males respectively manifest dull, male-like, narrow-striped colors versus brown-, gray-, olive-edged feathers, brown-gray to olive-washed, stripeless upperparts and white-yellow underparts. The 0.19- to 0.35-ounce (5.3- to 10-gram) Setophaga adelaidae (from Greek σής, "moth" and φάγος, "glutton") nets mature 4.72- to 5.32-inch (12- to 13.5-centimeter) bill-tail lengths.

Mature Adelaide's warblers, observed by Spencer Baird (March 31, 1823-Aug. 19, 1887), offer black-brown irises, pale-edged black bills and black-gray, brown-gray or white-yellow feet and legs.

Gray-bodied mature males present black-striped crowns; yellow eyebrows and underparts; crescent-marked, gray-patched cheeks; white paired wingbars; white underwing and undertail coverts; and brown-gray-olive-edged tails and wings.

Adelaide's warblers quest ant, aphid, beetle, caterpillar, fly, insect egg, lanternfly, leafhopper and spider prey at 492.13- to 1,541.99-foot (150- to 470-meter) altitudes above sea level. Bill-snapped, chip-called, pip-sung, twittered communications release high-pitched alarms about American redstarts, mongeese, northern parulas, pearly-eyed thrashers, prairie warblers, Puerto Rican screech-owls, roof rats and shiny cowbirds. Adelaide's warblers survive with black-whiskered vireos, elfin-woods warblers, lesser Antillean pewees and Puerto Rican todies in citrus groves; limestone, scrub, second-growth forests; and shaded coffee plantations.

Adelaide's warblers, as Caribbean American heritage and Puerto Rico Five-One icons and reinitas mariposeras ("butterfly-eating little queens"), thrive around mesquite (Prosopis) and tamarind (Tamarindus) host trees.

Adelaide's warbler (Dendroica adelaidae); Vieques Island (Isla de Vieques), off southeastern coast of Puerto Rico; Monday, April 21, 2008, 11:49: Jaro Nemčok, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Adelaide's warbler (Dendroica adelaidae); Vieques Island (Isla de Vieques), off southeastern coast of Puerto Rico; Monday, April 21, 2008, 11:49: Jaro Nemčok, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dendroica_adelaidae_2.jpg; via The Nemčoks' Family Website @ https://nemcok.sk/?pic=16811

Adelaide's warbler (Dendroica adelaidae); Vieques Island (Isla de Vieques), off southeastern coast of Puerto Rico; Monday, April 21, 2008, 11:49: Jaro Nemčok, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dendroica_adelaidae.jpg; via The Nemčoks' Family Website @ https://nemcok.sk/?pic=16812

For further information:

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BirdLife International 2016. "Setophaga adelaidae." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22721711A94725147. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22721711A94725147.en.
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Marriner, Derdriu. 2 June 2019. "Puerto Rican Bullfinches: Caribbean American, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/puerto-rican-bullfinches-caribbean.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 May 2019. "Puerto Rican Rain Gardens: American Wetlands and Puerto Rico Five-One." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/05/puerto-rican-rain-gardens-american.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 12 May 2019. "Stripe-Headed Tanagers: Fitness Month 2019, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/05/stripe-headed-tanagers-fitness-month.html

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Marriner, Derdriu. 14 April 2019. "Puerto Rican Screech-Owls Earth Month 2019, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/puerto-rican-screech-owls-earth-month.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 April 2019. "Earth Month, Puerto Rican Green Mango Hummingbirds and Sea Hibiscus." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/earth-month-puerto-rican-green-mango.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 31 March 2019. "Puerto Rican Emerald Hummingbirds and Puerto Rican Statehood." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
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Available @ https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/elyunque/learning/nature-science/?cid=fsbdev3_043045

Raffaele, Herbert A. 1989. A Guide to the Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands: Revised Edition. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

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