A warbler with a broken white eyering and gray-olive head perches on a branch
Nonbreeding Orange-crowned Warbler
Image: Nico Sarbanes | Macaulay Library
A warbler with a stark line through the eye and white feathers under the tail perches on a branch.
Nonbreeding Tennessee Warbler
Image: Matthew Addicks | Macaulay Library

Orange-crowned Warblers and Tennessee Warblers are relatively easy to tell apart in full spring plumage, but dull fall birds can be especially difficult to ID. Both species, especially Orange-crowned Warblers, demonstrate a lot of variation in their plumages. Check out the keys to ID below, then test your warbler identification skills with Bird Academy’s Snap ID tool. You’ll soon be picking out these subtle differences with confidence!

ID ClueOrange-crowned WarblerTennessee Warbler
Overall PlumageMuted yellow-gray to yellow overall. Western birds tend to be a little brighter.Usually has a gray head with a lighter belly, but some fall birds can be more yellow.
Eye and eyelineIndistinct gray line through the eye and broken white eyering. (Sometimes can look more like a line over the eye.)Prominent, darker line through the eye with pale eyebrow.
Beneath the tailYellow feathers under the tail.Whitish feathers under the tail, always lighter than the breast.
BreastUsually sports faint, blurry streaks.Plain breast with no streaking.
RangeMuch more likely than Tennessee in western North America. Breeds in Canada and western U.S., winters in southern U.S., Mexico, and Guatemala. Can occur year-round on U.S. Pacific Coast.Breeds in southern Canada. Stays east of the Rocky Mountains during migration. Winters in Caribbean and southern Mexico to Ecuador.

Lighting and perspective can sometimes make spotting these visual cues challenging. See if you can identify them in the quiz below. You can replay the quiz as many times as you want. Each time you hit “Play Again,” you’ll have new photo matchups to practice on. Just click “Start Snap ID Challenge” to get started!

Test Your Warbler ID Skills

Practice makes identification a snap.
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Fall warblers can be truly confusing for any birder, especially because of species variation and differences in female and immature plumage. Many confusing fall birds are duller versions of their spring selves, so learning what birds look like in spring can be a big help. Shape and proportion for each bird also becomes extra helpful in fall, when so many zippy warblers share similar colors!

A warbler with gray-olive back perches on a dried flower stem
Orange-crowned Warbler
Image: Zane Shantz | Macaulay Library
a light yellow warbler perches on a thorny branch
Yellow Warbler
Image: David Mathieu | Macaulay Library
A warbler with a light yellow belly perches on a flower stem.
Tennessee Warbler
Image: Brad Imhoff | Macaulay Library
A Warbler with a gray head and white eyering perches on the end of a branch
Nashville Warbler
Image: Manny Salas | Macaulay Library

Interested in going further with the rewarding realm of warbler identification? Check out our self-paced, online course Be a Better Birder: Warbler Identification and explore ID strategies, practice activities, and species-specific video portraits for 51 warbler species. Find out what this course has in store with a free sample lesson about the Yellow Warbler.

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