Yellow-rumped Warbler - BirdForum Opus

Photo by Forcreeks
Sellwood, Oregon, USA, April 2005

Setophaga coronata

Includes: Myrtle Warbler; Audubon's Warbler; West Mexico Warbler; Goldman's Warbler

Identification

14–15 cm (5½-6 in)
Yellow patches on sides unique but occasionally lacking. Birds of subspecies nigrifrons (West Mexico Warbler) are large and have dark mantle, Goldman's Warbler (goldmani) are large and have black mantle, while Audubon's Warbler are smaller and have grey mantle.

Photo by eastwood
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, May 2007

Distribution

North America's most common warbler. Breeds from Alaska east to northern Quebec (absent only in arctic region) south across most of the western United States; northern Minnesota and Michigan; New York; western Pennsylvania, and New England; also along the Appalachians south to West Virginia.

Found anywhere in North America in migration. Winters in southern United States, along the west coast north to Washington, and in Central America. Rare in northern South America.

Casual vagrant to Great Britain (22 records).

Taxonomy

Photo by etow
North-central Ohio, USA, October 2007

Formerly placed in genus Dendroica.

Subspecies

There are 6 subspecies¹
The eastern (Myrtle) and western (Audubon's) races of this species were once considered separate species. New results indicate that this topic probably will be assessed again soon, and if so, each of the four groups may become full species.

• Group "Audubon's Warbler"

• S. c. auduboni:

• breeds along the Pacific Slope region

• S. c. memorabilis:

• breeds from south-eastern British Columbia south (east of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada) to Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas (this form sometimes lumped with auduboni)

• Group "Myrtle Warbler"

Subspecies goldmani
Photo by Tom Jenner.
Cordillera de los Cuchumatanes in western Guatemala, April 2006.

• S. c. coronata:

• breeds from north-central Alberta across Canada to the eastern United States

• S. c. hooveri:

• breeds from Alaska, northern Yukon, and north-western Mackenzie south to northern British Columbia (this form sometimes lumped with coronata)

• Group "West Mexico Warbler" (or sometimes called "Black-fronted Warbler")

• S. c. nigrifrons:

• breeds Chihuahua and Durango mountains in western Mexico.

• Group "Goldman's Warbler"

• S. c. goldmani:

• breeds south-eastern Chiapas (rare) and Guatemala

Habitat

Coniferous and mixed forests also winters in open area.

Moulting to Spring plumage
Photo by KC Foggin
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, April 2016

Behaviour

Diet

Diet mostly insectivorous but will eat berries and other vegetation. Audobon's group eat some fruit in the winter months.

Reference

1. Dunn, Jon; Garrett, Kimball. 1997. A Field Guide to Warblers of North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 9780395783214
2. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2016. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2016, with updates to August 2016. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
3. Birdforum thread discussing the taxonomy of Yellow-rumped Warbler

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Yellow-rumped Warbler. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 4 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Yellow-rumped_Warbler

External Links

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