Nature & living things

A bird too red to hide, nesting on the open ground

Warblers are usually a puzzle of streaks and olive tones; this one is a solid flame red, living only in the mountain forests of Mexico north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. That conspicuousness sits oddly with its habits — the female builds a domed nest directly on the ground and does all the incubating, while both parents ferry food in and carry waste out. Its three subspecies sit in separate populations and can be told apart by something as small as the color of the patch behind the eye. It is officially a least-concern species, which is doing a lot of quiet work while its habitat disappears.

Chicks leave the ground nest just 10 to 11 days after hatching, and they start life pinkish-brown rather than red.

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