Yellow Warbler Sample Lesson

[Kevin] Yellow Warbler is well named, because it’s yellow over its entire body. The face, the throat, and the underparts. Also in the wings and tail. The upper parts are yellow-green to olive. And it does have indistinct yellow wing bars. But one of the key things to notice here is it has yellow spots in the tail. Big yellow patches in the tail. And that’s different than any other warbler. It also has a big black eye, surrounded by a yellow eye ring, which really makes the eye stand out on that plain yellow face.

In this slide, males are on the left, and females are on the right. Notice that the male has reddish streaks on the chest. Females can have some of that, but usually, they’re pretty plain yellow. Immatures are similar to the adult female, but just a little paler and duller.

Yellow Warbler breeds in wet, deciduous thickets, especially in willows. It’s also found in shrubby areas and old fields. In southern Florida and farther south, it can be found in mangroves. In addition to the migratory form of the yellow warbler that breeds all over North America, there’s several other resident forms in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Males in those populations have chestnut caps, or even an entirely red head. They’re pretty cool.

Chestnut streaks on the chest of male warblers is variable. And it’s less distinct in the fall. So expect to see some variation. The yellow warbler’s song is a series of clear whistled notes. The most common is a rapid musical “Sweet-sweet-sweet, I’m a sweet”. Let’s listen to that. (Yellow Warbler Singing) Can you hear how the mnemonic catches the change in rhythm of that, where it speeds up a little bit at the end, “I’m a sweet”? Yellow Warbler catches insects by gleaning, fly-catching and hovering.

Streaks on the females can be pretty variable too. So be ready for a lot of variation from completely yellow to heavily streaked. First fall birds are usually pale with very few streaks. And both the first year male and first year female look pretty much the same. Young birds can be very pale yellow. In fact, some of these guys look almost more brown than yellow. Sometimes we see rather patchy yellow on birds. This particular individual is a golden yellow warbler, that’s resident in the Caribbean. But we also can see similar young birds in other parts of their range too.

So what do I see when I see a yellow warbler? Well, first, they’re all yellow. They have yellow everywhere. All over the body and head, and even in the wings and tail. And really, no one part of the body outshines any other. There’s not real contrast here. The red streaks and the bright yellow chest of the spring male is a real giveaway.

But I always notice the big dark eye in that plain face in all plumages. And the yellow in the tail is diagnostic. So, what can you confuse it with? Well, the Palm Warbler is the only other warbler with red streaks on the chest, but it has a rusty cap and a dark eye stripe. The eastern form of this can be really yellow, though.

Orange-crowned Warbler has a dark eye line and pale eye crescents. It doesn’t have any yellow on the edge of the wing feathers, and it doesn’t have tail spots. The western form of this can be especially bright yellow. Prothonotary Warbler is another bright yellow warbler with a beady black eye and an all yellow face. But it has dark wings, it’s white under the tail, and has large white tail spots, not yellow.

Female and immature Yellow Warblers can be easily confused with female and immature Hooded and Wilson’s warblers. They all have plain yellow faces, and entirely yellow underparts. But neither the Hooded nor the Wilson’s has yellow edging to the wing feathers, or yellow tail spots. In fact, the Hooded Warbler has white tail spots. Those yellow tail spots are sometimes hard to see, but they’re present in all the plumages, and they really let you know you have a Yellow Warbler.End of transcript