The Chestnut-sided Warbler is a bird that has thrived on human disturbance. It nests in young, brushy second growth — regenerating clearcuts, overgrown fields, and shrubby forest edges — a habitat that was scarce in the unbroken forests before European settlement, so the species is thought to be far more common now than in the past. The breeding male is unmistakable: a lime-yellow crown, black face lines, crisp white underparts, and a bold streak of rich chestnut down each side.
It is a lively, tail-cocking forager, and its bright, whistled song is often paraphrased as "pleased, pleased, pleased to MEET-cha," with an emphatic ending. Chestnut-sided Warblers breed across much of Michigan wherever young shrubby habitat is available, from May into late summer, then migrate to Central America. In fall they molt into a very different lime-green-backed, white-eyed plumage that puzzles many beginning birders.
Gleans insects, caterpillars, and spiders from the leaves and twigs of shrubs and young trees, often foraging with its tail cocked upward. It hunts actively in the low, dense foliage of second growth and adds a few berries during migration.
It depends on young, brushy second-growth habitat created by logging, abandoned farmland, and forest edges. Such habitat was rare in the vast mature forests of the past, so the Chestnut-sided Warbler has benefited from human land use.
A bright, whistled phrase often remembered as "pleased, pleased, pleased to MEET-cha," rising to an emphatic accented ending. It is one of the easier warbler songs to learn.
After breeding it molts into a lime-green back, plain white underparts, and a bold white eye-ring, losing the chestnut sides. This "confusing fall warbler" plumage looks almost like a different species.
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