What is "mourning warbler"

Mourning \Mourn"ing\, a.

1. Grieving; sorrowing; lamenting.

2. Employed to express sorrow or grief; worn or used as appropriate to the condition of one bereaved or sorrowing; as, mourning garments; a mourning ring; a mourning pin, and the like.

   Mourning bride (Bot.), a garden flower ( Scabiosa atropurpurea) with dark purple or crimson flowers in flattened heads.

   Mourning dove (Zo["o]l.), a wild dove ( Zenaidura macroura) found throughout the United States; -- so named from its plaintive note. Called also Carolina dove. See Illust. under Dove.

   Mourning warbler (Zo["o]l.), an American ground warbler ( Geothlypis Philadelphia). The male has the head, neck, and chest, deep ash-gray, mixed with black on the throat and chest; other lower parts are pure yellow.

The mourning warbler (Geothlypis philadelphia) is a small songbird of the New World warbler family.

These long birds have yellow underparts, olive-green upperparts and pink legs. Adult males have a grey hood and a black patch on the throat and breast. Females and immatures are grey-brown on the head with an incomplete eye-ring.

Their breeding habitat is thickets and semi-open areas with dense shrubs across Canada east of the Rockies and the northeastern United States. The nest is an open cup placed on the ground in a well-concealed location under thick shrubs or other vegetation.

These birds migrate to Central America and northern South America.

They forage low in vegetation, sometimes catching insects in flight. These birds mainly eat insects, also some plant material in winter.

The song of this bird is a bright repetitive warble. The call is a sharp chip.

The "mourning" in this bird's name refers to the male's hood, thought to resemble a mourning veil.