How to Identify aHooded Warbler
Setophaga citrina · 5.1 in (13 cm)
Male vs. female
Male
Olive-green above and vivid yellow below, with a solid black hood and throat enclosing a bright yellow face.
Female
Yellow-faced with an olive crown and usually only a trace of a dark hood outline.
Male photo: Ninahale / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Second photo: TonyCastro / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Field marks
- Complete black hood surrounding a yellow face on the male
- Large dark eye in a plain yellow face
- Flashes white outer tail feathers constantly
- Unmarked yellow underparts
Similar species
What it sounds like
A ringing, musical "ta-wit ta-wit ta-wit tee-yo" with an emphatic slurred ending.
Behaviour that gives it away
Fans its tail open and shut while foraging, flashing white tail spots that appear to startle insects into moving.
Habitat & range
Mature deciduous forest with a dense shrub layer in the East and Southeast.
When you'll see it
A summer visitor that arrives to breed in southeastern and eastern North America.
What it eats
Insects and spiders taken from low foliage and the air.
Did you know?
It flicks its tail open constantly, and the white flashes are thought to flush insects into flight where it can catch them.
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