How to Identify aYellow-throated Warbler
Setophaga dominica · 5.1–5.5 in (13–14 cm)
Male vs. female
Male
Gray back, black face mask with a white eyebrow and white neck patch, and a vivid yellow throat over a white streaked belly. Sexes look alike.
Female
Identical to the male, averaging slightly duller.
Male photo: Wildreturn / Wikimedia, CC BY 2.0 · Second photo: Sandhillcrane / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Field marks
- Bright yellow throat sharply cut from a white belly
- Bold white patch on the side of the neck
- Black streaks down the flanks
- Long bill for a warbler, used to probe pine needles
Similar species
What it sounds like
A clear series of descending whistled notes that rises sharply on the last one.
Behaviour that gives it away
Creeps along pine branches and probes clusters of needles with an unusually long bill, more like a nuthatch than a warbler.
Habitat & range
Pine woods, cypress swamps and riverside sycamores in the Southeast.
When you'll see it
Depending on where in southeastern, eastern and central North America you are, it is present all year and a summer visitor that arrives to breed.
What it eats
Insects probed from bark, pine needles and Spanish moss.
Did you know?
Its bill is noticeably longer than other warblers’, letting it reach into pine needle clusters and Spanish moss.
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