Yellow warbler

“ This is far below the approximate mean of 8,900 for the black-poll warbler, but well above the average of 4,000 for all passerine birds.
Field marks.—One hardly needs field marks to recognize a yellow warbler; it is the yellowest of all our warblers at all seasons, even the wing and tail feathers are edged with yellow, and there is no white in either wings or tail. The youngest birds likewise show some yellow on the under parts and in the flight feathers. ”

“ Next to the yellow warbler, this is probably the best known of the wood warblers and is about the second one of the group that the novice learns to recognize. All through the eastern United States this is by far the most abundant warbler on both migrations, being about the first to arrive in the spring and the last to leave in the fall, often remaining all winter nearly up to the southern limits of its breeding range. It is a large, conspicuous warbler, not at all shy, and is to be found almost anywhere, often in enormous numbers. ”

“ The yellow warbler is a summer resident and is abundant in lawns, parks and orchards, but the others mostly inhabit woods. The redstart also is very abundant. It is a pert little bird, with red and black colors and a white belly. The black and white warbler nests in the eastern states. It runs over the bark of trees like a nuthatch. The black-throated, green warbler nests in pine woods from southern New England northward. Besides the tree-inhabiting warblers are a number which live in undergrowth and on the ground. ”

“ I don't believe there is anybody living who could name at sight every one of the seventy warblers that visit the United States. Some are very gaily coloured and exquisitely marked, as birds coming to us from the tropics have a right to be. Some are quietly clad; some, like the redstart, are dressed quite differently from their mates and young; others, like the yellow warbler, are so nearly alike that you could see no difference between the male and female from the distance of a few feet. ”

“ Although a number of wood warblers which winter in the Central American highlands are gregarious, those that center in the lowlands are typically solitary. In this, the yellow warbler is no exception. Each wintering bird appears to have its own territory, from which it attempts to drive others of its kind. Trespassers are scolded with insistent chips; or more rarely, soon after his arrival, a male will sing while defending his claim. ”

“ While the uniform yellow of this warbler's under parts in any plumage is its distinguishing mark, it also has a flycatcher's trait of constantly flirting its tail, that is at once an outlet for its superabundant vivacity and a fairly reliable aid to identification. The tail is jerked, wagged, and flirted like a baton in the hands of an inexperienced leader of an orchestra. One need not go to the woods to look for the restless little sprite that comes northward when the early April foliage is as yellow and green as its feathers. ”

“ The Yellow Palm Warbler usually nests on the ground in moss or dead ferns, but one nest was placed a few inches from the ground in a small spruce. Though a single nest of the Yellow Warbler was found in a spruce, that species may nest more commonly in the willows. Cape May, Myrtle, and Blackburnian Warblers nest high, the other species low. ”

“ Mr. Nuttall describes the nest as not unlike that of a summer yellow-bird. He speaks of one that he examined as “being fixed in a trifid branch and formed of strips of inner red cedar bark and asclepias (milkweed) fibers, also with some caterpillar silk, and thickly lined with cud-weed down and slender tops of the bent grass (Agrostis.) ”
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It is difficult to understand why this bird should be called the Prairie Warbler, unless it is in order to distinguish it from those species that frequent less open places. A much more appropriate name is the Chestnut-backed Yellow Warbler. ”

“ The Yellow Warbler is peculiarly a bird of sunshine, and is to be found chiefly in open situations. It swarms thru the orchards and gardens, frequents the wayside thickets, and in town takes possession of the shrubbery in lawn or park. It is abundant in swampy places, and is invariably present in season along the banks of streams which are lined with willows, alders, and wild rose bushes. ”

“ The beautiful Black and Yellow Warbler is a common summer resident of the higher parts of the Catskill and Adirondack regions, and breeds sparingly in local cool spots elsewhere in the State [New York] . * * * So far as known its food in our region consists entirely of insects and associated creatures, as spiders and daddy-long-legs. Almost all of its known items of insect food are sorts injurious to woodlands. It takes weevils, leaf beetles, [204] and click beetles, leaf hoppers, plant lice, and scale insects, sawfly larvae and ants, and caterpillars and moths. ”

“ In half-cleared fields which have grown up to sprouts, and in rich open woods in the bottom-lands, where the switch-cane forms a considerable proportion of the undergrowth, the blue-winged yellow warbler is one of the characteristic birds, says Ridgway. ”

“ They are small, very active, but feeble songsters, and, to be seen, must be sought for. In passing through the woods, most persons have a vague consciousness of slight chirping, semi-musical sounds in the trees overhead. In most cases these sounds proceed from the warblers. Throughout the Middle and Eastern States, half a dozen species or so may be found in almost every locality, as the redstart, the Maryland yellow-throat, the yellow warbler (not the common goldfinch, with black cap, and black wings and tail) , the hooded warbler, the black and white creeping warbler ”

“ It shows a striking resemblance to the yellow-throated warbler, but it is much smaller, has no black in the cheeks, and it has a yellow rather than a white mark below the eye. The adult male in spring is light bluish gray above, marked on the head and back with black spots, with a bright yellow throat, two white wing bars, and much white in the tail. Females, young birds, and males in the fall are similar but browner. ”

“ The Southern and Middle States are where it is most abundant. Here is a wood warbler that is not a bird of the woods — less so, in fact, than either the summer yellowbird (yellow warbler) or the palm warbler, that are eminently neighborly and fond of pasture lands and roadside thickets. But the prairie warblers are rather more retiring little sprites than their cousins, and it is not often we get a close enough view of them to note the brick-red spots on their backs, which are their distinguishing marks. They have a most unkind preference for briery bushes, that discourage human intimacy. ”

“ The Cuban yellow warbler was originally described by Baird (1864) as a full species but is now regarded as a subspecies of Dendroica petechia. Ridgway (1902) describes it as “similar to D. p. petechia, but duller in color; adult male with upper parts much darker olive-green, the pileum usually concolor with the back, sometimes slightly more yellowish, very rarely tinged with orange-ochraceous, and wing-edgings less purely yellow; adult female usually duller in color than in D. p. ”

“ I have sat for an hour within a few feet of a pair of these lovely birds and watched them building their nest. The many fine photographs that I have received show that it is an easy subject for close-up pictures; the near presence of the camera does not seem to disturb them in their feeding routine. Many intimate home-life studies have been very successful, for they are brave and devoted parents. Robie W. Tufts (1927) has had a male yellow warbler come at least twice to feed a brood of young that he was holding in his hand, and once he even wiped his bill on his thumb. ”

“ The yellow warbler, who is a famous sufferer from her visits, sometimes outwits her, as we have seen; but other warblers, less clever, the vireos, some sparrows, and, more rarely, woodpeckers, flycatchers, orioles, thrushes and wrens, seem to accept the unwelcome gift without a protest. ”

“ It is in reality the young of the Black and Yellow Warbler, and was intended to form part of the Plate which will represent the adult male and female of that species. My good friend will, I know, excuse this mistake, as I have honoured a beautiful new species with his name. ”

“ Mourning Warbler (Geothlypis philadelphia) .—Became suddenly very common May 6. Frequented chiefly brush-piles and old fences. Most of the specimens observed were males in fine plumage.
Black-capped Yellow Warbler (Myiodioctes pusillus) .—Rare during migration.
Canada Flycatching Warbler (Myiodioctes canadensis) .—One of the most numerous of the migratory species; first noted April 18, but not common until a week later.
Hooded Warbler (Myiodioctes mitratus) .—Rather common in deep woods, but much less so than in the vicinity of the Cypress swamp, further south. ”

“ As soon as the foliage of the forests begins to expand, the Blue Yellow-backed Warbler flies to the tops of the trees, and there remains during the season, gleaning amongst the leaves and branches, in the same active manner as it employed when nearer the ground, not leaving off its quick and short pursuit of small insects on the wing. When on the branches, it frequently raises its body (which is scarcely larger when stripped of its feathers than the first joint of a man's finger) upwards to the full length of its legs and toes, and is thus enabled to seize insects otherwise beyond its reach. ”

“ It is much better to hunt them now, when you have but to stand on a little hillock and count, then pluck the nest that you prefer and take it home with you without abraiding anybody’s feelings. The yellow warbler mother bird seems to have a great love for the tender buff wool of the young shoots of the cinnamon fern,{185} which are just about ready to shed these delicate overcoats when nesting begins with the yellow warblers. In fact, her color scheme is perfect. ”

“ Many of them, however, nest in bushes, vines, and shrubbery, and by planting clumps of these near houses something can be done toward increasing the numbers of certain species, as the yellow warbler and the redstart. Because our warblers are chiefly insectivorous, their food habits bar them from the usual bird lunch-counter in times of hard storms. ”

“ In both adult male and female plumages the colors are richer and the streakings below heavier than in the young bird, but the female is always duller in color and the streaking is less prominent or entirely missing.
Food.—Edward H. Forbush (1907) writes of the food of the eastern yellow warbler in Massachusetts:
It would be hard to find a summer bird more useful among the shade trees or in the orchard and small-fruit garden than this species. Almost entirely insectivorous, it feeds on many of the greatest pests that attack our fruit trees, vines and berry bushes. ”

“ The yellow warbler sings far less while in Central America than many other wintering species. Exceptionally, one will be found singing profusely. In early October, 1934, I came upon such a bird among the coffee groves of a great plantation on the lower Pacific slope of Guatemala. ”

“ Fall.—The striking feature of the fall migration of the eastern yellow warbler is its earliness. The birds begin to move away from their nesting haunts as soon as the young are able to take care of themselves, and the southward migration is well under way before midsummer. Smith (1943) says that, in Vermont, “during many seasons, the species is not seen later than July. Departure dates for local summer residents range from July 15 to the 30th. Later records occur between August 18 and September 9th.” These later records are probably for birds from farther north. ”

“ Tent caterpillars are commonly eaten. Small bark beetles and boring beetle are eaten, among them the imago of the currant borer. Weevils are greedily taken. A few useful beetles are sacrificed; among them ground beetles, soldier beetles, and small scavenger beetles. The Yellow Warbler has some expertness as a flycatcher among the branches, and seizes small moths, like the coddling moth, with ease, but apparently does not take many parasitic hymenoptera, although some flies are taken. Plant lice sometimes form a considerable portion of its food. ”

“ The golden-winged warbler is one of the daintiest among this group of gay-colored little birds. Its plumage is immaculate white below and delicate pearl-gray on the upper parts, the crown and wings sparkle with golden yellow, and on the throat and cheeks is a broad splash of jet black.
It is only within comparatively recent years that we have become well acquainted with the goldenwing: the older ornithologists, Wilson, Audubon, and Nuttall, knew it only as a rather uncommon migrant, drifting through from the south, and they had no idea where it bred. ”

“ When disturbed or alarmed they are at once alert; a sharp alarm note, something like that of a Yellow-throated Warbler (D. dominica) is uttered, but more forcible and clear cut in its delivery. This is accompanied with a few jerks of the tail, and the bird is off to a neighboring tree. They are found alike in the trees, low bushes, and shrubbery, sometimes on or quite near the ground, and seem to prefer the heavy and more thickly grown woods to trees or bushes more in the open. ”

“ Field marks.—The golden-cheeked warbler might at first glance be mistaken for a black-throated green warbler, but the upper parts in the adult male are deep black from crown to tail, instead of olive-green, and the under parts, except for the black throat, are white and not tinged with yellow. ”