The white-cheeked warbler is a migratory bird. In summer, they spend their time in the forests of North America, the northern United States and south-central Canada, especially in the leafy coniferous forest belt. Some birds may migrate north to areas near the tundra to enjoy the cool summer.
This is where they breed. These birds nest in the leaves under the coniferous forest and lay 3 or 5 eggs in the ring-shaped nest. Then the male and female birds began to hatch in turn, and after about 12 days, these young birds hatched. As a mother, the female bird is only responsible for helping to raise the young in the first two weeks. After two weeks, the female bird officially broke up with the male bird and flew to other places to build a new nest with other males. The remaining males will take full responsibility for raising young birds. In fact, it is not the lack of responsibility of the female bird, but the best choice made in the face of harsh nature. Because the young birds of the white-cheeked warbler are often eaten by natural enemies in the growth process, only a few lucky birds can grow up smoothly, so the female birds must give birth to as many offspring as possible in the breeding season to ensure the population number.
In autumn, this white-cheeked warbler will fly to Venezuela and Colombia in South America. The whole journey needs to cross the 2500-kilometer-wide Atlantic Ocean. There is almost no place to stop and rest. In order to reach the other side, as early as August, the white-cheeked warbler began to prepare for migration in a planned way. In order to store more energy, they eat like crazy every day. These foods include spiders, ants, termites, mosquitoes, aphids, locusts and other insects, and sometimes eat some berries such as blueberries. While eating like crazy, these birds are approaching the southeast coast of the United States. When they were ready to leave the North American continent, their weight almost doubled. With their fat bodies, the birds flew to the boundless sea.
When crossing the Atlantic, stored fat became the only source of energy. According to the estimation of ornithologists, these birds consume 0.08 grams of fat per hour when flying, and they can fly about 230 kilometers for every 1 gram of fat consumed. After 72 to 88 hours of continuous flight, these little guys came to the northern coast of South America. The long journey made them completely emaciated, and almost all the fat in their bodies was consumed during the flight, leaving only about 10 gram.
They will spend a summer in South America here, then fly across the Atlantic again and return to that distant birthplace.