Overview

Yellow-rumped Warbler: Medium warbler, dark-streaked, blue-gray upperparts, yellow rump. White throat and belly, black breast. The head is black with yellow crown, white eye-rings, and faint eyestripes. Wings are dark with yellow shoulder patches and two white bars. Tail is dark with white corners.

Range and Habitat

Yellow-rumped Warbler: Breeds from northern Alaska, northern Manitoba, central Quebec, and Newfoundland south and west to northern Mexico and east to Michigan, northern New York, Massachusetts, and Maine. Spends winters from the southern part of its breeding range southward into the tropics. A highly adaptable bird found in a variety of habitats including coniferous forests, mixed woodlands, deciduous forests, pine plantation, bogs, forest edges, and openings. In the winter, it is often found in brushy thickets of bayberry and wax myrtle.

Breeding and Nesting

Yellow-rumped Warbler: Three to five brown and gray marked, white to creamy white eggs are laid in a bulky nest made of twigs, rootlets, and grass, lined with hair and feathers, and built in a conifer. Incubation ranges from 12 to 13 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Yellow-rumped Warbler: Feeds mainly on insects in the summer and on berries and fruits in the winter, particularly wax-coated berries of bayberries and wax myrtles; unique gastrointestinal traits allow it to subsist on this unusual food source.

Readily Eats

Sugar Water, Fruit, Nut Pieces

Vocalization

Yellow-rumped Warbler: Emits a buzzing warble, which sounds like a sharp "chek."

Similar Species

Yellow-rumped Warbler: Palm and Magnolia warblers are not as bright and contrasting; also, Palm Warbler has yellow undertail coverts and constantly pumps tail.