Song
Its song is often heard with notes growing louder and louder in a chant. Perched erect on low horizontal branches, or sometimes on fallen trees, it emits, at intervals of ten or fifteen minutes, a short succession of simple notes, teacher-teacher-teacher- teacher, beginning with emphasis and gradually falling.

Habitat
Favoring woodlands, the ovenbird is most often seen as it walks along the forest floor. It might be confused with a sparrow, but the bill is too narrow and the upperparts lack streaking and spotting. Other ground-dwelling warblers with streaked underparts are the waterthrushes, but they constantly wag their tails, have white or yellow superciliums, and lack eye rings.

Migration and winter range
These ground warblers are difficult to see, but they can be heard. Ovenbirds arrive in the northern states during the first week of May and by the end of the month, they are normally settled in their summer territory in Canada. While on wing it appears to glide through the woods with ease, although it seldom extends its flight to more than a hundred yards at a time. They migrate by day, resorting at night to the deepest swamps. None of these birds remain in the United States during winter, although some are found lingering in the south as late as the first of December. Range is from Northeast British Columbia to Newfoundland to south to US east of Rockies. Winters from the Gulf Coast and South Carolina to north South America.

Food
This bird's diet is mostly insects consisting of crickets, ants, spiders, caterpillars, aphids, earthworms, moths, slugs, and beetles. Ovenbirds walk on the ground of woods turning over leaves with their bills. A few seeds and fruit such as mulberries are also eaten.

Nest
Looking like an oven, the nest is usually found on the ground, sometimes among the roots of a tall tree, sometimes by the side of a fallen trunk, and again at the foot of some slender sapling. It is sunk in the ground among dry leaves or decayed moss, and is neatly formed of grasses, both inside and out, arched over with a thick mass of the same material, covered by leaves, twigs, and grasses. A small opening is left on one side, just sufficient to admit the bird. The female builds the nest. During the months of May-July, in the snug nest, the female lays from 4-6 eggs, which are white, irregularly spotted with reddish-brown near the larger end. The eggs are subjected to predation by snakes, red squirrels and skunks. When accidentally disturbed at the period of incubation, the ovenbird glides over the ground and uses all sorts of artifices to decoy its enemies from the nest.

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