What is "hermit warbler"

Hermit \Her"mit\, n. [OE. ermite, eremite, heremit, heremite, F. hermite, ermite, L. eremita, Gr. ?, fr. ? lonely, solitary. Cf. Eremite.]

1. A person who retires from society and lives in solitude; a recluse; an anchoret; especially, one who so lives from religious motives.

   He had been Duke of Savoy, and after a very glorious reign, took on him the habit of a hermit, and retired into this solitary spot.
   --Addison.

2. A beadsman; one bound to pray for another. [Obs.] ``We rest your hermits.''
   --Shak.

3. (Cookery) A spiced molasses cookie, often containing chopped raisins and nuts.

   Hermit crab (Zo["o]l.), a marine decapod crustacean of the family Pagurid[ae]. The species are numerous, and belong to many genera. Called also soldier crab. The hermit crabs usually occupy the dead shells of various univalve mollusks. See Illust. of Commensal.

   Hermit thrush (Zo["o]l.), an American thrush ( Turdus Pallasii), with retiring habits, but having a sweet song.

   Hermit warbler (Zo["o]l.), a California wood warbler ( Dendroica occidentalis), having the head yellow, the throat black, and the back gray, with black streaks.

The hermit warbler (Setophaga occidentalis) is a small perching bird. It is a species of New World warbler.

Mature hermit warblers normally grow to be 4½ to 5 inches long. Hermit warblers are dark gray in coloration on top, and white below, and their flanks are streaked with black. The wings have two diagonal white wing bars. The majority of the hermit warbler's head is yellow, and males have a dark black throat, while females have much less black on their throat bib and immature birds have no black throat.

Hermit warblers are common, but incredibly shy, birds that dwell in open coniferous forests. Their summer breeding range is the majority of the west coast of the United States up to Washington. They will sometimes winter in south-west California, but they are migratory and will winter in Central America as far south as Panama.

Nests are neat and cup-shaped, constructed from stems, grass, twigs, and pine needles positioned near the tip of a branch high in a conifer tree. The female will lay between 3 and 5 eggs, which are white in color and heavily spotted with brown and lilac speckles. Other incubation and nesting habits are mostly unknown.

Like most warblers the hermit warbler eats a strict diet of insects and spiders, and can often be found hanging upside-down from the ends of conifer branches, like a chickadee, probing for food.