Plate 40 – American Redstart

Audubon identified 16 flycatchers in the Muscicapa genus. There are no additional records of two of them: Bonaparte’s flycatcher (Plate 5) and the Small-headed fly-catcher (Plate 434 #2). All of the rest of the birds in the Muscicapa genus have been re-classified into nine new genera. The one bird that fell under the genus of Muscicapa that is today a warbler is the American redstart (Setophaga ruticilla). The star now of the flycatching warblers can be seen typically in dense foliage flushing bugs from their hiding places by dashing in between branches and leaves and using its tail like a blinking flashlight. All the while the bird snaps its bill for bugs, “as if it procured several of them on the same excursion.” Although when it comes to snapping at a wasp, Audubon shows in Birds of America that the American redstart is maybe thinking twice.