In song and mannerisms this bird is extremely "unwarbler." An individual which Chapman watched, sang about 5,250 notes in three hours! Observers agree the song resembles that of the Carolina Wren or Cardinal, and Burns states a flight song is sometimes delivered about dusk, during the nesting period. They walk with a dignified air seldom attained by small birds and lack the nervous movements of Wood Warblers.
NEST: A large outer case of dead leaves enclosing weed stems and grass with a thick lining of fine rootlets, placed on ground in wood thicket, at base of tree or under tussock.
Eastern United States from southern New York to Wisconsin, Iowa and eastern Nebraska, south to Gulf States and Texas.
A 60-foot tree with short, stout trunk and pendulous branches sometimes touching the ground, distributed locally from southern Illinois to eastern Iowa.