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Crex Meadows ... Birds on the Meadows ... American Redstart
The American Redstart
Setophaga ruticilla
The American Redstart (Dendroica castanea) is a common Crex Meadows Warbler. This warbler migrates through Crex Meadows on its way to nesting grounds in surrounding forests.
The American Redstart is an insect eater during most of the year. It will eat some small fruits during the winter months in its Caribbean, Central American and northern South American wintering grounds.
These American Redstarts were migrating through Crex Meadows on May 21, 2008 and were very common searching out insects in trees and less frequently, on the ground.
The coloring of the male American Redstart is black and orange with a whitish underbelly. The tail is long and black banded at the ends with the outside three end feathers on each side of the tail holding the color pattern of the bird (orange in males). This is very obvious when the bird is fanning its tail or in flight.
Reading over American Redstart information, the breeding age for the males appears to be when they reach two years old. Reported facts indicate the male on the first flight back to summer grounds hold the gray coloring and some will attempt to establish territories and attract mates but success of this is unclear.
The pictures on the right are of the same bird, the pictures above and below left are two other individuals. Coloring changes indicate the upper left bird is a two year old male and the below left bird is a first spring male. The pictures to the right appear to be an even older male bird.
Females have a similar pattern but are gray where the male is black and yellow where the male is orange. First year males carry the female coloring but on migration back the first spring, they seem to begin to tint orange rather than yellow.
The American Redstart is a very active bird and can give a photographer fits trying to focus for that perfect shot. This hyper-activity can also provide many in-flight photos.
All pictures taken May 21, 2008
| Kingdom | Animalia | Animal, animals, animaux |
| Phylum | Chordata | chordates, cordado, cordés |
| Subphylum | Vertebrata | vertebrado, vertebrates, vertébrés |
| Class | Aves | Birds, oiseaux |
| Order | Passeriformes | perching birds |
| Family | Parulidae | Wood-Warblers |
| Genus | Setophaga | |
| Species | ruticilla |