Nombre en español: Reinita Rayada

Nombre en inglés: Blackpoll Warbler

Nombre científico: Setophaga striata

Familia: Parulidae

La reinita estriada (Setophaga striata),​ también denominada chipe gorrinegro,​ chipe estriado, bijirita de cabeza negra, cigüita de casco prieto, reinita listada, reinita rayada y arañero estriado,​ es una especie de ave paseriforme de la familia Parulidae que vive en América. Es ave migratoria que cría en Norteamérica septentrional y pasa el invierno en el noreste de Sudamérica.

Esta ave migra desde Norteamérica hacia Suramérica pasando sobre el oceano Atlántico logrando abarcar casi 3.000km en vuelos de hasta 88 horas sin escalas. Se encuentra en una variedad de bosques, matorrales y hábitats arbustivos en Colombia. 

Descripción

El chipe gorrinegro presenta acusado dimorfismo sexual y mayor variación estacional en el plumaje. Cuando alcanzan la adultez, los individuos miden entre 12 y 13 cm de longitud. El plumaje del macho en época reproductiva es diagnóstica de la especie: corona negra, auriculares blancos y garganta blancos, y una raya malar («bigote») negra. Las partes dorsales son grises rayadas con negro; en el ala hay dos rayas blancas. Las partes ventrales, desde la garganta hasta las plumas cobertoras inferiores de la cola son blancas, con rayas negras en los costados del pecho.

Las hembras en época reproductiva tienen las partes dorsales color pardo olivo con rayas negras (incluyendo la corona), siendo más oscuras las alas y la cola. Al igual que en el caso de los machos, hay dos rayas blancas en el ala. La cara es amarillo limón, más oscura en la zona auricular. Las partes ventrales son blancas o con cierto tiente amarillo limón, con un esbozo de raya malar negra y rayas negras en los flancos del pecho.

Los adultos en otoño son verde olivo con rayas oscuras en las partes dorsales (las hembras presentan rayas en la corona) y dos rayas blancas en el ala. La garganta y el pecho son amarillo limón sucio, con algunas rayas oscuras en los costados. El vientre es blancuzco. La cara es amarillo limón, con una línea transocular oscura.

Los individuos inmaduros son similares a los adultos de otoño, pero con un rayado menor en la espalda y el vientre amarillento.

Distribución

Anida en una amplia zona septentrional de América del Norte, desde Alaska hasta Terranova, y desde la línea de los árboles hasta el sur de Canadá y Nueva Inglaterra. Durante la migración, viaja al sur, atravesando el oriente de los Estados Unidos y las Antillas para invernar en Colombia, Venezuela, las Guayanas y una considerable zona del Amazonas noroccidental.

Hábitat

En la época reproductora vive en bosques de coníferas y durante la invernada en distintos hábitats. Puede encontrarse desde el nivel del mar hasta elevaciones medianas o altas.

Alimentación

Se alimenta principalmente de insectos que atrapa en las hojas y troncos de los árboles, También de arañas y frutas especialmente durante la migración.

Migración

Durante más de 50 años, los científicos han acumulado datos que mostraban que miles de individuos de la especie Setophaga striata, volaban cada otoño desde el este de Canadá y el noreste de Estados Unidos (Nueva Inglaterra) hasta América del Sur, para pasar el invierno. Algunos de los detalles de este impresionante vuelo migratorio habían permanecido desconocidos, entre otros motivos por la fragilidad de este tipo de pájaros -que dificulta la colocación de sistemas de geolocalización.

Recientemente, un equipo de científicos de la Universidad de Massachusetts en Amherst (Estados Unidos) y de la Universidad de Guelph (Canadá), ha conseguido superar los inconvenientes técnicos y con ayuda de unos geolocalizador de sólo medio gramo de peso instalados en varios de estos pequeños pájaros, ha acumulado «pruebas irrefutables» de que estas aves puedan completar vuelos sin escalas de entre 2270 y 2770 kilómetros en tan sólo dos o tres días. Además, buena parte de este vuelo se realiza sobre el mar.

Blackpoll warbler

The blackpoll warbler (Setophaga striata) is a New World warbler. Breeding males are mostly black and white. They have a prominent black cap, white cheeks and white wing bars. The blackpoll breeds in forests of northern North America, from Alaska throughout most of Canada, to the mountains of New York and New England. They are a common migrant through much of North America. Come fall, they fly South to the Greater Antilles and the Northeastern coasts of South America in a non-stop long-distance migration over open water, averaging 2500 km, one of the longest distance non-stop overwater flights ever recorded for a migratory songbird. Rare vagrants to western Europe, they are one of the more frequent transatlantic passerine wanderers.

Etymology

The genus name Setophaga is from Ancient Greek ses, «moth», and phagos, «eating», and the specific striata means «striped».

Description

The blackpoll warbler is a fairly small bird which attains the weight of a ball point pen. However, it is one of the larger of the diverse genus Setophaga (formerly Dendroica). In the species, body length can vary from 12.5 to 15 cm (4.9 to 5.9 in) and wingspan can range from 20 to 25 cm (7.9 to 9.8 in). Body mass can vary from 9.7 to 21 g (0.34 to 0.74 oz), with an average bird anywhere between 12 and 15 g (0.42 and 0.53 oz). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 6.6 to 8 cm (2.6 to 3.1 in), the tail is 4.5 to 5.4 cm (1.8 to 2.1 in), the bill is 0.8 to 1.2 cm (0.31 to 0.47 in) and the tarsus is 1.8 to 2 cm (0.71 to 0.79 in). The summer male blackpoll warblers have dark-streaked brown backs, white faces and black crowns. Their underparts are white with black streaks, and they display two white wing bars. The adult females essentially resemble washed-out versions of the summer males, and in particular, the females lack the strong head patterns, and their crowns and faces are shades of gray. Another outstanding physical characteristic of the species are the bright orange, pink legs.

Non-breeding birds of this species have greenish heads, dark-streaked greenish upperparts and yellowish breasts, with the yellow extending to the belly in young birds. Their wing bars are always present.

Habitat

In the southern portion of their breeding range, blackpoll warblers can be found on the higher elevations of mountains in woodland or brushy areas. They also spend their summers on the wooded coastal islands of Maine and the Maritime Provinces. Farther north they have been reported throughout the boreal coniferous forest. Blackpolls breed nearer to the tundra than any other warbler.

Behavior

Although fairly large for a warbler, blackpoll warblers are fairly easy to miss because of their relatively inactive foraging style and tendency to perch in dense foliage near the canopy of the trees. They are more often heard than seen, though their song is one of the highest pitched known. Their songs are simple repetitions of high tsi notes. Their calls are thin sits.

Foraging and diet

The blackpoll has a deliberate feeding style with occasional flitting, hovering and hawking around branches. They are primarily insectivorous. The species appears to be quite a generalist, preying on a great diversity of adult and larval insects and spiders. Documented insect prey for the species includes lice, locusts, cankerworms, mosquitoes, webworms, ants, termites, gnats, aphids and sawflies. It has been suggested that this species may be a spruce budworm specialist, but there is no obvious connection between population trends of the two species. The blackpoll will opt for berries in migration and during winter. They often forage high in trees, and sometimes catch insects while in flight.

Reproduction

Their breeding habitats are coniferous woodlands, especially those in which spruce trees grow. The bird’s breeding ranges extend to the taiga. Blackpoll warblers commonly nest in a relatively low site of a conifer. They lay 3–5 eggs in a cup-shaped nest, rarely up to 9. The eggs are incubated for around 12 days and the young leave the nest when they are only 10 days old, before they can fly well. Their parents feed them for a total of around two weeks. Mated females usually begin second nests right away and leave post-fledging parental duties to their mates. The high incidence of double brooding, coupled with and partly a function of low nest predation and parasitism rates, results in high annual productivity for this species.

Migration

The blackpoll warbler’s transoceanic flight has been the subject of over twenty-five scientific studies. Sources of data include radar observations, bird banding and weights taken, dead birds recovered from field sites and fatal obstacles. It is unknown if they feed on insects while in flight. Blackpoll warblers have the longest migration of any species of New World warbler. This is likely the reason that they are one of the later warblers to appear in spring migration, after one or more short overwater flights and a relatively prolonged movement overland after through North America anytime from early May to mid-June. The peak of their migration is in late May, when most warblers are on their breeding grounds.

In the fall the birds migrate from their breeding grounds across the northern latitudes. They converge on the Northeastern United States south to Virginia starting in mid-August. Most blackpolls fly directly from northeastern North America over the Atlantic Ocean to their winter range. Data from nocturnal accidents, banding stations and sightings have shown that blackpolls are rare autumn migrants south of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, whereas north of Cape Hatteras they are common. Part of the fall migratory route of the blackpoll warbler is over the Atlantic Ocean from the northeastern United States to Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, or northern South America. Island stopovers at Bermuda and other places are evidence of migratory pathways. To accomplish this flight, the blackpoll warbler nearly doubles its body mass in staging areas and takes advantage of a shift in prevailing wind direction to direct it to its destination. When they fly southward over the Atlantic they burn, 0.08 g of fat every hour. This route averages 3,000 km (1,900 mi) over water, requiring a potentially nonstop flight of around 72 to 88 hours. They travel at a speed of about 27 mph (43 km/h). Blackpolls can weigh more than 20 g (0.71 oz) when they leave the United States and lose 4 or more grams by the time they reach South America. Some of the blackpolls land in Bermuda before going on. Some birds, often with lower body weights, do not make it.

Using a tiny light level geolocator biologists have proven that the black poll flies an average of 2540 km (2270 to 2770 km) non-stop over an average of 62 h, up to 3 days, corresponding to about 41 km/h. In 2013, 37 blackpolls from Vermont and Nova Scotia carried a miniaturized geolocator weighing 0.5 g with harness on their back. The device recorded light-levels, from which longitudes and latitudes could be estimated, and in 2014 the scientists recovered five of the original 37. Four of the five birds departed from western Nova Scotia between September 25 and October 21, and traveled at speeds between 10.7 and 13.4 meters per second. The study revealed that the spring migration overland and the autumn routes overwater were «dramatically different». When the flight distance per body mass was compared to other birds, only the ruby-throated hummingbird might travel more kilometres per gram (estimated around 210–280 km/g vs. 233 km/g for blackpolls).

Fuentes: Wikipedia/eBird/xeno-canto/WikiAves