Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
Learn more about these drawings.
Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds
Photo: Greg W. Lasley/Vireo
Yellow-throated Warbler
Setophaga dominica
| Conservation status | Has undoubtedly disappeared from some areas with loss of breeding habitat, but current populations probably stable. |
|---|---|
| Family | Wood Warblers |
| Habitat | Open woodlands, groves, especially live oaks, pines, sycamores. Breeds in a variety of southern forest types. On southern Atlantic coastal plain, occurs in old live oaks covered with Spanish moss. In south, lives in pine forest and cypress swamps. In Mississippi Valley, also breeds along streams in bottomland woods, especially of sycamores. During winter, often forages in palm groves. |
Photo Gallery
Feeding Behavior
Favorite method of foraging includes much creeping along on branches and leaning trunks. Probes into crevices in bark with its long bill. Also flies out to catch flying insects in mid-air. In winter in the tropics, frequently seen searching for insects by hanging upside down among leaves of palms.
Eggs
Usually 4, sometimes 5. Dull grayish white, with spots of purple, red and brown. Incubation period is probably 12-13 days. Female incubates, and possibly male does also. Young: Probably both parents feed nestlings, but details (including age at which the young leave the nest) are not well known. Usually 2 broods per year.
Young
Probably both parents feed nestlings, but details (including age at which the young leave the nest) are not well known. Usually 2 broods per year.
Diet
Mostly insects. Feeds on many insects including beetles, moths, caterpillars, grasshoppers, crickets, flies, mosquitoes, ants, scale insects, aphids, and others; also spiders.
Nesting
Arrives on breeding grounds early in spring, and males defend nesting territory by singing. Nest: Placed in Spanish moss at end of branch. Where Spanish moss does not occur, nest is placed on high branch of pine, sycamore, or cypress, usually 30-60' up, sometimes 4-120' above ground. Nest is an open cup made of grass, moss, bark strips, weeds, caterpillar webs, and lined with plant down and feathers. Built by both sexes, but mostly by female.
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- All Seasons - Common
- All Seasons - Uncommon
- Breeding - Common
- Breeding - Uncommon
- Winter - Common
- Winter - Uncommon
- Migration - Common
- Migration - Uncommon
Songs and Calls
A series of clear ringing notes descending in pitch and increasing in speed, rising abruptly at the end, teeew-teeew-teeew-teeew-tew-tew-twi.How climate change could affect this bird's range
In the broadest and most detailed study of its kind, Audubon scientists have used hundreds of thousands of citizen-science observations and sophisticated climate models to predict how birds in the U.S. and Canada will react to climate change.
Read more: climate.audubon.org
Each map is a visual guide to where a particular bird species may find the climate conditions it needs to survive in the future. We call this the bird’s “climatic range.”
The colors indicate the season in which the bird may find suitable conditions— blue for winter, yellow for summer (breeding), and green for where they overlap (indicating their presence year-round).
The darker the shaded area, the more likely it is the bird species will find suitable climate conditions to survive there.
The outline of the approximate current range for each season remains fixed in each frame, allowing you to compare how the range will expand, contract, or shift in the future.
The first frame of the animation shows where the bird can find a suitable climate today (based on data from 2000). The next three frames predict where this bird’s suitable climate may shift in the future—one frame each for 2020, 2050, and 2080.
You can play or pause the animation with the orange button in the lower left, or select an individual frame to study by clicking on its year.
Yellow-throated Warbler In the News More News
Audubon Mural Project
Blackburnian Warbler and Yellow-throated Warbler by George Boorujy
560 W. 157th St., New York, NY
Illustrated Aviary
Yellow-throated Warbler
A Toronto artist offers his geometric take on this iconic bird of the south.
