Bay-breasted warbler
species of bird

The bay-breasted warbler (Setophaga castanea) is a small species of songbird in the New World warbler family, Parulidae. It is one of 35 species in the diverse genus Setophaga. Like all songbirds, or passerines, the species is classified in the order Passeriformes.
Taxonomy
The bay-breasted warbler was formally described and illustrated in 1810 by the American ornithologist Alexander Wilson based on specimens collected in Pennsylvania. Wilson coined the binomial name Sylvia castanea. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "chestnut-coloured". The bay-breasted warbler is now one of over 30 species placed in the genus Setophaga that was introduced by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1827. The species is monotypic, with no subspecies accepted. The genus name Setophaga combines the Ancient Greek σης/sēs, σητος/sētos meaning "moth" with -φαγος/-phagos meaning "-eating".
Description
Adult males in breeding plumage are primarily greyish above, with two white wing bars, dark streaks on the back, and a creamy neck patch.
“Bay-breasted warbler” enters the record as species of bird. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bay-breasted, warbler and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q27075917. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1810 and 1827.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bay-breasted warbler” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.