NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Setophaga caerulescens (J. F. Gmelin, 1789)

Source-backed taxonomic record

Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.

FIELD MARKS-Black-throated Blue Warbler male is dark blue on head and upperparts, with black face, throat, sides of the breast and flanks, contrasting with gleaming white centre of breast and lower underparts and conspicuous white patch at base of primaries. It has conspicuous white patches in outer tail. Legs are black. Eyes are black. Bill is short, thin and black. --Female has a rather dull dark greyish-olive green above and buffy-yellow below with conspicuous whitish surpercilium, a broken whitish eye ring, and a whitish patch at base of primaries.
Immature is similar to adult. Back and he — FIELD MARKS-Black-throated Blue Warbler male is dark blue on head and upperparts, with black face, throat, sides of the breast and flanks, contrasting with gleaming white centre of breast and lower underparts and conspicuous white patch at base of primaries. It has conspicuous white patches in outer tail. Legs are black. Eyes are black. Bill is short, thin and black. --Female has a rather dull dark greyish-olive green above and buffy-yellow below with conspicuous whitish surpercilium, a broken whitish eye ring, and a whitish patch at base of primaries. Immature is similar to adult. Back and head feathers of male are edged with green, undersides are tinged yellow, and has some white tips to black feathers on throat. Young female is like adult, more yellowish and sometimes without white spot on wing.
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Open encyclopedia reference

The black-throated blue warbler (Setophaga caerulescens) is a small passerine bird of the New World warbler family. Its breeding ranges are located in the interior of deciduous and mixed coniferous forests in eastern North America. Over the cooler months, it migrates to islands in the Caribbean and Central America. It is very rarely found in western Europe, where it is considered to be a non-indigenous species. The black-throated blue warbler is sexually dimorphic; the adult male has a black face and cheeks, deep blue upperparts and white underparts, while the adult female is olive-brown above and light yellow below. Predominantly insectivorous, the black-throated blue warbler supplements its diet with berries and seeds in winter. It builds its nests in thick shrubs and the closeness of its nesting sites to the ground make it a favored species for the study of warbler behavior in the wild. The black-throated blue warbler defends its territory against other birds of the same species for both nesting and winter habitats.

Wikipedia contributors, Black-throated blue warbler; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T11:49:25.875505+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name: Setophaga caerulescens (J. F. Gmelin, 1789)
Name authority: (J. F. Gmelin, 1789)
Common name: Black-throated Blue Warbler
Rank: species
Accepted status: accepted
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Parulidae
Genus: Setophaga
Extinction status: Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
kingdomAnimalia
phylumChordata
subphylumVertebrata
infraphylumGnathostomata
parvphylumOsteichthyes
megaclassTetrapoda
classAves
orderPasseriformes
familyParulidae
genusSetophaga Swainson, 1827
speciesSetophaga caerulescens (J. F. Gmelin, 1789)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Setophaga. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Species	Classification	Source status
Cerulean WarblerSetophaga cerulea (A. Wilson, 1810)	ParulidaeChordata	Accepted speciesRecorded extant
Golden-cheeked WarblerSetophaga chrysoparia (P. L. Sclater & Salvin, 1860)	ParulidaeChordata	Accepted speciesRecorded extant
Hooded WarblerSetophaga citrina (Boddaert, 1783)	ParulidaeChordata	Accepted speciesRecorded extant
Myrtle WarblerSetophaga coronata (Linnaeus, 1766)	ParulidaeChordata	Accepted speciesRecorded extant
St. Lucia WarblerSetophaga delicata (Ridgway, 1883)	ParulidaeChordata	Accepted speciesRecorded extant
Bahama WarblerSetophaga flavescens (Todd, 1909)	ParulidaeChordata	Accepted speciesRecorded extant
Blackburnian WarblerSetophaga fusca (P. L. S. Müller, 1776)	ParulidaeChordata	Accepted speciesRecorded extant
Kirtland's WarblerSetophaga kirtlandii (S. F. Baird, 1852)	ParulidaeChordata	Accepted speciesRecorded extant
Magnolia WarblerSetophaga magnolia (A. Wilson, 1811)	ParulidaeChordata	Accepted speciesRecorded extant
Hermit WarblerSetophaga occidentalis (J. K. Townsend, 1837)	ParulidaeChordata	Accepted speciesRecorded extant
Palm WarblerSetophaga palmarum (J. F. Gmelin, 1789)	ParulidaeChordata	Accepted speciesRecorded extant
Mangrove WarblerSetophaga petechia (Linnaeus, 1766)	ParulidaeChordata	Accepted speciesRecorded extant

Browse 107 records assigned to Parulidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Recorded name	Source status
Dendroica caerulescens (J. F. Gmelin, 1789) (J. F. Gmelin, 1789)	synonym
Motacilla caerulescens J. F. Gmelin, 1789 J. F. Gmelin, 1789	synonym

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

North America

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=950042 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:4X3BG. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.