Yellow-rumped Warbler

IDENTIFICATION: A relatively large warbler with a yellow rump and sides, and white corners to the tail. Its back is blue-gray in breeding plumage, and brown in winter. Length: 13-14 cm.; weight: 12-13 g.

VOICE: A distinctive, sharp note, "chek". Audio (M. Oberle). The song is a rambling, soft series of warbling notes, often fading toward the end.

HABITAT: Shrubby fields, coastal areas, gardens, and edges of dry and moist forests.

HABITS: In winter it feeds on berries, insects and spiders. Besides gleaning insects off leaves, it will often hawk insects in the air. On its breeding grounds in North America the female builds the nest on a horizontal tree branch hidden by overhanging leaves. The female incubates the 4-5 eggs for 12-13 days, with the male occasionally bringing her food. The female broods the chicks, but both parents feed the young. Young fledge about 10-14 days after hatching.

STATUS AND CONSERVATION: This is one of three North American migrant warbler species that are irruptive in Puerto Rico, i.e. in most winters it is rare, but in some years larger numbers reach Puerto Rico and the eastern Caribbean. The subspecies that winters in Puerto Rico may be increasing on its breeding grounds.

RANGE: Breeds in forests from western Alaska east to Labrador and West Virginia. Most individuals breeding in eastern North America winter in the southeastern USA, Cuba, Hispaniola, and the Bahamas.

TAXONOMY: PASSERIFORMES; PARULIDAE. The subspecies found in Puerto Rico (Dendroica coronata coronata) was formerly classified as a separate species, the Myrtle Warbler.


Breeding plumage - Photo: G. Beaton


Non-breeding plumage - Photo: G. Beaton

References

Arendt, W.J. 1992. Status of North American migrant landbirds in the Caribbean region: a summary. Pp. 143-171 in Ecology and conservation of neotropical migrant landbirds (J.M. Hagan III and D.W. Johnston, eds.) Smithsonian Instit. Press, Washington, D.C.

Bent, A.C. 1953. Life histories of North American wood warblers. Smithsonian Instit. U.S. National Museum Bull. 203. (Reprinted by Dover Press, NY, 1963).

Dunn, J. and K. Garrett. 1997. A field guide to warblers of North America. Houghton Mifflin, NY.

Hunt, P. D. and D. J. Flaspohler. 1998. Yellow-rumped Warbler (Denroica coronata). No. 376 in The birds of North America (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.).The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Princeton.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. Una guía a las aves de Puerto Rico y las Islas Vírgenes. Publishing Resources, Inc., Santurce, PR.

Raffaele, H.A., J.W. Wiley, O.H. Garrido, A.R. Keith, and J.I. Raffaele. 1998. Guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton.

Wunderle, J.M., Jr. and R.B. Waide. 1993. Distribution of overwintering nearctic migrants in the Bahamas and Greater Antilles. Condor 95:904-933.

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Spanish text

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