American Redstart

American Redstart
Male in Chiquimula, Guatemala
female
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Parulidae
Genus:	Setophaga Swainson, 1827
Species:	S. ruticilla
Binomial name
Setophaga ruticilla (Linnaeus, 1758)

The American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla) is a New World warbler. It is the only member of its genus and is unrelated to the Old World redstarts. It derives its name from the male's red tail, start being an old word for tail.

Description

American Redstart of Quintana, Texas

The American Redstart is 12 cm long and weighs 8.5 g. The breeding males are unmistakable, jet black above apart from large orange-red patches on their wings and tails. Their breast sides are also orange, with the rest of their underparts colored white. In their other plumages, American Redstarts display green in their upperparts, along with black central tails and grey heads. The orange patches of the breeding males are replaced by yellow in the plumages of the females and young birds. Their song is a series of musical see notes. Their call is a soft chip.

Male American Redstart

Distribution and habitat

They breed in North America, across southern Canada and the eastern USA. These birds are migratory, wintering in Central America, the West Indies, and northern South America (in Venezuela they are called "candelitas"). They are very rare vagrants to western Europe.

Behaviour

Breeding

The breeding habitats of the redstarts are open woodlands or scrub, often located near water. They nest in the lower part of a bush, laying 2-5 eggs in a neat cup-shaped nest.

American redstarts display a mixed mating strategy; they are predominantly monogamous but around 25% of males maintain multiple territories and are polygynous. Even within monogamous pairs, a high proportion of offspring - as many as 40% - are not fathered by the male of the pair. The intensity of the males' coloration (which is due to carotenoid pigments) predicts their success at holding territory in their non-breeding, winter locations in the Caribbean, the probability that they will be polygynous, and the proportion of offspring in their nests that they will themselves father.

Feeding

The redstarts feed on insects which are usually caught by flycatching. American Redstarts also have been known to catch their insect prey by gleaning it from leaves. This is a very active species. The tail is often held partly fanned out. These birds have been observed flashing the orange and yellow of their tails, on and off, to startle and chase insects from the underbrush.

References

• BirdLife International (2004). Setophaga ruticilla. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 12 May 2006.
• Curson, Quinn and Beadle,New World Warblers ISBN 0-7136-3932-6
• Stiles and Skutch, A guide to the birds of Costa Rica’’ ISBN 0-8014-9600-4
• Trent Thomas, Betsy, "Conoce nuestras aves" ISBN 980-257-032-X

External links

• American Redstart Species Account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• American Redstart - Setophaga ruticilla - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
• American Redstart Information and Photos - South Dakota Birds and Birding
• American Redstart Bird Sound