Birdfinding.info ⇒  The eastern counterpart of the closely related Yellow-headed Warbler is locally common mainly along Cuba’s eastern and southern coasts and in its southern mountains.  It is readily found on Cayo Coco and neighboring islands, and at many sites in the far south.  At the western edge of its range, it can be found in coastal scrub at Topes de Collantes National Park, where it occurs alongside the Yellow-headed Warbler.

Oriente Warbler

Teretistris fornsi

Endemic to central and eastern Cuba and its northern keys.

Occurs mainly in forest understory and brushy thickets, at all elevations, from southeasternmost Cuba west to Cienfuegos and northern Matanzas Province, and on the major keys of the Jardines del Rey Archipelago.

Identification

A small gray-and-yellow songbird with gray upperparts, yellow breast and face, and bright lemon-yellow eyering.

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Romano, Cuba; May 30, 2013.)  © José M. Pantaleón

Oriente Warbler.  (Playa Pesquero, Holguín, Cuba; February 18, 2018.)  © Suzanne Labbé

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Romano, Cuba; April 14, 2017.)  © Bob Lewis

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Coco, Cuba; April 9, 2018.)  © Michael J. Good

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Paredón Grande, Cuba; November 10, 2017.)  © Michael J. Good

Oriente Warbler.  (Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; March 3, 2018.)  © Wayne Fidler

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Coco, Cuba; April 27, 2017.)  © Dave Wendelken

Oriente Warbler, showing the thick bill that is characteristic of this family.  (Cayo Coco, Cuba; April 9, 2018.)  © Michael J. Good

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Coco, Cuba; February 1, 2018.)  © Felipe Pimentel

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Coco, Cuba; December 8, 2014.)  © Dubi Shapiro

Oriente Warbler, showing the thick bill that is characteristic of this family.  (Cayo Coco, Cuba; November 17, 2018.)  © Jay Greenberg

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Coco, Cuba; February 11, 2015.)  © Michael J. Good

Oriente Warbler.  (Camagüey, Cuba; February 26, 2018.)  © Arco Huang

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Romano, Cuba; May 30, 2013.)  © José M. Pantaleón

Oriente Warbler, showing the peculiar keel shape of its bill.  (Cayo Romano, Cuba; May 30, 2013.)  © José M. Pantaleón

Oriente Warbler.  (Jardines del Rey Airport, Cayo Coco, Cuba; February 15, 2018.)  © Chris Conard

Oriente Warbler.  (Siboney Nature Reserve, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba; April 19, 2007.)  © Miguel A. Landestoy T.

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Coco, Cuba; April 27, 2017.)  © Dave Wendelken

Oriente Warbler, showing the peculiar keel shape of its bill and indentation of its facial feathers.  (Cayo Paredón Grande, Cuba; March 18, 2014.)  © Sue Wright

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Paredón Grande, Cuba; February 4, 2017.)  © Dušan M. Brinkhuizen

Oriente Warbler.  (Cienfuegos, Cuba; March 21, 2018.)  © Aslam Ibrahim Castellón Maure

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Coco, Cuba; February 28, 2017.)  © Jukka Jantunen

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Coco, Cuba; March 9, 2015.)  © Morten Venas

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Coco, Cuba; May 4, 2013.)  © William Price

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Coco, Cuba; February 16, 2013.)  © Hank Davis

Oriente Warbler.  (Cayo Paredón Grande, Cuba; March 2013.)  © Ian Merrill

Oriente Warbler.  (Camagüey, Cuba; February 26, 2018.)  © Arco Huang

Voice.  Characteristic vocalizations are sharp. reverberant tzeet! notes usually delivered in series; also higher-pitched twittering:

Notes

Monotypic species.

References

BirdLife International 2016. Teretistris fornsi. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22721870A94736328. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22721870A94736328.en. (Accessed June 11, 2019.)

Curson, J. 2019. Oriente Warbler (Teretistris fornsi). In Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D.A. Christie, and E. de Juana, eds.). Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. https://www.hbw.com/node/61519. (Accessed June 11, 2019.)

eBird. 2019. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, N.Y. http://www.ebird.org. (Accessed June 12, 2019.)

Garrido, O.H, and A. Kirkconnell. 2000. Field Guide to the Birds of Cuba. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y.

Raffaele, H., J. Wiley, O. Garrido, A. Keith, and J. Raffaele. 1998. A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.