ovenbird

[For the right pronunciation, please click here.]

Please, pay attention to the pronunciation of ‘oven’.

a kind of bird – song bird – ground dwelling (= lives mostly on land) – belongs to the warblers – small, with olive brown back and white underside with bold, dark streaked spots, white eye rings, orange crown (on the head) with black stripes, thin pointed beak (bill), slender pink legs; size: 4-6 inches long, and weight: 15-30 grams; feeds on (eats) insects, spiders, snails, and in winter, fruit; lives for 3-5 years; found in North and South Americas

Special Features:

(an ovenbird nest)

The males sing with sweet voice which is loud, and is heard far and wide. The notes sound like “cher.. teacher, teacher, teacher, …”.

The most interesting feature of this small ovenbird is the nest it builds to lay eggs and raise chicks. It builds a dome-shaped nest which looks like (resembles) a Dutch oven. The nest is built with mud pellets and small dry twigs and other plant matter, lined with fine grasses and hair. Some kinds build nests on the ground and some on the branches! The mud nest may weigh up to 5 Kg!

Other members of the ovenbird family are known by the colorful names of plainsrunner, castlebuilder, leafgleaner, and thistletail.

For a wonderfully informative article about ovenbirds/warbler, please click here. For a news article about the decline of ovenbirds, with a clear picture of an oven-shaped nest build only with fallen leaves on the ground, please click here and for a poem on ovenbird by Robert Frost, please click here.