Birdfinding.info ⇒  Common in most of its small range.  On Grand Bahama it is especially common in the Lucayan Estates.  On Abaco it is common throughout, and easily found in Abaco National Park.  On Cuba the most reliable sites are Viñales, La Güira National Park, and Las Terrazas.

Olive-capped Warbler

Setophaga pityophila

Endemic to Cuba and the northern Bahamas (Grand Bahama and Abaco), where it primarily inhabits pine forests.  On Cuba, it occurs mainly in the western mountains of Pinar del Río and Artemisa, but sometimes wanders east to the Zapata Swamp region.  There is also a separate, smaller population in the far southeastern mountains of Holguín and Guantánamo provinces.

Identification

Medium gray above and pale gray or whitish below, with an olive forecrown and a bright yellow throat that is partly framed by black streaks.

Olive-capped Warbler.  (Blue Hole, Abaco, Bahamas; May 25, 2017.)  © Brendan Fogarty

Olive-capped Warbler.  (Sendero La Ermita, Pinar del Río, Cuba; February 21, 2018.)  © Arco Huang

Olive-capped Warbler.  (Abaco National Park, Bahamas; March 24, 2017.)  © Frank Salmon

Olive-capped Warbler.  (Hacienda La Cortina, Pinar del Río, Cuba; March 20, 2013.)  © Grace Oliver

Olive-capped Warbler.  (Hacienda La Cortina, La Guira National Park, Cuba; March 2013.)  © Ian Merrill

Olive-capped Warbler.  (Hacienda La Cortina, La Guira National Park, Cuba; March 2013.)  © Ian Merrill

Olive-capped Warbler.  (La Güira National Park, Cuba; March 26, 2008.)  © William Price

Olive-capped Warbler.  (Cafetal Buenavista, Las Terrazas, Artemisa, Cuba; February 6, 2017.)  © Michael J. Good

Olive-capped Warbler.  (Viñales, Pinar del Río, Cuba; February 23, 2018.)  © Christoph Moning

Olive-capped Warbler.  (Las Terrazas, Sierra del Rosario Biosphere Reserve, Artemisa, Cuba; February 21, 2018.)  © Arco Huang

Olive-capped Warbler.  (Viñales, Pinar del Río, Cuba; February 23, 2018.)  © Christoph Moning

Olive-capped Warbler.  (Blue Hole, North Abaco, Bahamas; May 25, 2017.)  © Brendon Fogarty

Olive-capped Warbler.  (La Güira National Park, Cuba; March 26, 2008.)  © William Price

Voice.  Song is quick series of whistled notes that rises in the middle and falls at the end:

Notes

Monotypic species.

References

Curson, J., D. Quinn, and D. Beadle. 1994. Warblers of the Americas: An Identification Guide. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.

Curson, J. 2019. Olive-capped Warbler (Setophaga pityophila). 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/61483. (Accessed November 15, 2019.)

eBird. 2019. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, N.Y. http://www.ebird.org. (Accessed November 15, 2019.)

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.