Yellow-Rumped Warbler

"Species Profile: Yellow-Rumped Warbler"," These warblers prefer coniferous forest, but can also be found in deciduous forest.
 Yellow-rumped warblers are sexually dimorphic, meaning that males and females each have distinct appearances.
 Females are striped gray with yellow patches on their throat and underneath each wing.


Yellow-rumped warblers are unique in that this species was once considered to be two separate species, the eastern ""Myrtle Warbler"" and the western "Audubon's Warbler," based on slight differences in appearance and song.
 The eastern and western populations are now considered to be subspecies of the Yellow-rumped Warbler.
 Subspecies are not distinct enough, however, that they cannot interbreed.
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 During the winter when insects are not as plentiful, the warblers will eat berries and visit feeders.
 Male birds tend to forage higher up in the canopy than females, and both males and females can be seen skimming the surface of a body of water to collect insects.


During the breeding season, breeding pairs often lay and raise two broods.
 The female builds a cup-shaped nest on a branch out of bark, plants, and roots, and lines the nest with feathers, sometimes weaving the feathers so that the tips curl over and hide the eggs.
 Yellow-rumped warblers are sometimes target hosts for cowbirds, a parasitic species that lays its eggs in the nests of other birds.


Incubation lasts from 12 to 13 days, and during the first days of the chicks' lives, both parents cooperate to provide them with food.
 Immature birds are streaked with soft gray and have the distinctive yellow markings beneath the wings and at the base of the tail.


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