The male American Redstart is a small black bird with bright orange patches on the wings and tail Females and immatures are olive brown above with yellowish patches on the wings and tail. The lower parts of the female are white including the breast and throat. Males do not attain their adult plumage for a full year. Their song is a high pitched "Tse-tse-tse" or "wee-see, wee-see, wee-see". The Redstart is sometimes described as nervous or fidgety as it appears to be constantly in motion often showing its wing marking and spreading its tail.
The breeding habitat is the open and second growth woodlands across most of central and eastern United States most of southern Canada and in the western mountain regions of Idaho and Colorado. The abundance of this type of habitat makes this one of the most abundant warblers in North America. In the winter the bird migrates to the Everglades, southern Texas and southern California and points south into the tropics.
The male will make short semicircular flights with wings held stiff and sings to mark its territory. In areas where the redstart is common the Redstart will sing almost constantly. The male will also stand on the toes stretching their bodies and fanning their wings while puffing out its chest during courtship.
The clutch consists of 4 dull-white eggs speckled with brown placed in a compact cup of grass, bark shreds, plant fibers and spider silk and often decorated with lichens and lined with fine grasses and hair. The nest is usually placed low in a sapling or close to the trunk of a larger tree. The female incubates the eggs for about 12 days and the young are able to fly about 9 days after hatching. The young are cared for by both parents. The nests are often parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird but the Redstart will sometimes destroy these eggs by burying them in the bottom of the nest.
The American Redstart bounces and flits about sometimes likened to a candle flame as it scours buds, leaves, twigs, and blossoms for the insects and spiders on which it feeds. They may suddenly drop down in pursuit of flying insects while fanning its brightly colored tail. The Redstart has flycatcher like bristles around its bill and competes for food with the Least Flycatcher and are sometimes aggressively attacked by this bird.
Length: 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 inches.
