Phil Chadwick's Art: #3011 "Chestnut-sided Warbler Sing"

#3011 "Chestnut-sided Warbler Sing"
11 X 14 (inches).
Started at 9:00 am Sunday, March 22nd, 2026

My friend John Verburg. John Verburg, a naturalist and terrific photographer, provided me with an inspiring image of a male Chestnut-sided Warbler in its vibrant breeding plumage. This is the next in the singing bird series.

In the early 1800s, both John James Audubon and Alexander Wilson saw this bird only once. The Chestnut-sided Warbler is a "success story" in North American birding, having gone from rare in the early 1800s to common today due to increased shrubby, young forest habitats. Humans have destroyed the old-growth forests, and this has produced a habitat that favours the lifestyle of the Chestnut-sided Warbler. The Singleton forests were never cut, but we have built a habitat for all creatures.

Distinctive Features: It is easily identified by its bright yellow crown (cap), chestnut-red stripes along its white flanks, and a bold black facial pattern.

Behaviour: The bird is captured singing, a common behaviour during the breeding season from May through summer as they establish territories.

"Pleased to Meetcha" Song: Males have two distinct song classes: an accented song used to attract females (often interpreted as pleased, pleased, pleased to MEECHA) and an unaccented song used for territorial defence.

Habitat: These warblers thrive in early successional habitats, such as regenerating forests, overgrown pastures, and forest edges.

Chestnut-sided Warblers flit and hop along slender branches, carefully inspecting the undersides of deciduous leaves. Look for them in saplings and shrubs more often than in tall trees. They often raise the tail and droop their wings as they move through the branches.

Chestnut-sided Warblers eat mostly insects. They feed mostly in deciduous habitats, where these warblers pick or glean caterpillars and other prey from the undersides of leaves. To find prey, the birds hop quickly from perch to perch to change their perspective. They tend to stay in the foliage rather than near large branches. Seeds and fruit make up a small part of the diet. On the wintering grounds, they eat fruits of tropical plants.

Chestnut-sided Warblers form monogamous pair bonds. Courtship displays involve males raising and spreading their tail and wings, then vibrating the flight feathers and crown feathers while raising and lowering them. The male guards his mate as she constructs the nest and occasionally follows or chases intruders in the territory. Aggressive encounters between males involve straightening or lowering the tail (which they typically hold upward when foraging) and fluffing out their chestnut flank feathers, as well as calling.

Nests are fairly low to the ground, in deciduous trees and shrubs of the understory, usually no more than 6 feet high. Some very low nests have been found in blackberry, alder, multiflora rose, and ferns. Most nests are set in the crotch of several small branches. These birds frequently use spiderwebs to weave their nests to branches, adding durability to the structure. Nests average 2.8 inches in diameter and 2.6 inches in height, with the interior cup 2 inches across and 1.5 inches deep.

Every portrait is a challenge. I almost always start with the eyes and the beak.

I highly recommend Frontenac Bird Studies. Frontenac Bird Studies (FBS) was created by the Migration Research Foundation (MRF) in 2009 with the aim of strengthening the capacity for protection of bird populations and habitats in the Frontenac region through monitoring and research. According to the 2010 BioBlitz conducted at our sanctuary, several significant species use the Singleton Sanctuary. There might be more now, given the extensive efforts undertaken to improve habitats.

The Chestnut-sided Warbler was counted during that BioBlitz! The other warblers observed were Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Cerulean, Nashville, Pine, Yellow and Yellow-rumped Warblers.

The waterfront still looks like this in 2026. You can imagine why I fell in love at first sight...

My admiration for birds goes back to 1967... comprising about 60 portraits. The above are recent "singing bird" portraits.

It was still winter outside, so #3011 "Chestnut-sided Warbler Sing" was completed within the Singleton Studio, listening to tunes while the wood stove kept me warm!