Northern Waterthrush
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| Northern Waterthrush | ||||||||||||||
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| Seiurus noveboracensis (Gmelin,, 1789) |
The Northern Waterthrush, Seiurus noveboracensis, is a New World warbler. It breeds in northern North America in Canada, and the northern USA.
It is migratory, wintering in Central America, the West Indies and Florida. This is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.
The Northern Waterthrush has a plain brown back and white underparts streaked with black. There is a strong white supercilium, and the legs are pink. All plumages are similar, but young birds have buff underparts rather than white.
The only confusion species is the closely related Louisiana Waterthrush, Seiurus motacilla, which has buff flanks and undertail and bright pink legs.
The breeding habitat is wet woodlands near standing water. Northern Waterthrushes nest in a stump or amongst tree roots, laying 3-6 eggs in a cup nest.
These birds are terrestrial feeders, seeking insects, molluscs and crustaceans amongst the leaf litter.
The song is a loud swee swee chit chit weedleoo. The call is a hard chink.
Reference
New World Warblers by Curson, Quinn and Beadle, ISBN 0-7136-3932-6