(Brief) Wood-Warbler Quiz*

1. Which is the largest wood-warbler species in size within North America?

A: Yellow-Breasted Chat (7 inches, compared to the relatively diminutive 4.25 inches of the N. Parula)

2. Which wood-warbler species’ breeding area is the largest in geographical range?

A: Yellow Warbler (among 46 described subspecies in the species, they breed within N., S., and Central America)

3. Fill in the XXX in the following sentence:

Myrtle, Audubon and XXX constitute the six described subspecies within the Yellow-Rumped Warbler species

A: Goldman’s

{i.e., Three Audubon subspecies exist and a fourth Audubon subspecies carries the common name of "Goldman's," while two other subspecies are considered "Myrtle" -- with all of the six subspecies living in defined geographic areas (Dunn & Garrett, "Wood-Warblers," Houghton Mifflin, 1997) }

4. Two species of wood-warblers whose foraging behavior most resembles a nuthatch’s:

a. Yellow and N. Parula
b. Yellow-throated and Black and White
c. Swainson’s and Worm-eating

A: b

5. The following eastern USA wood-warbler species whose populations have most decreased in recent years (according to ongoing monitoring studies, including the Breeding Bird Survey):

a. Yellow
b. Cerulean
c. Black and White

A: Cerulean

* = award yourself 1 point for each correct question; then feel free to check back again for the next quiz in April, 2008. As the months progress, you might enjoy adding your quiz totals from one month to the next. At the end of 2008, I’ll be glad to list the winning quiz taker whose average number of correct answers is among the highest among all quiz takers who submit their 2008 total to me.

If you have missed a quiz in 2008 or do so in the next few months, no worries.

Remember, I’m considering the “average” score per person, so it won’t matter that one quiz winning candidate may have taken every quiz from March, 2008 – December, 2008 while another may have, for example, discovered this blog site beginning in June, 2008.