Yellow warbler

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For the yellow warbler genus in the Acrocephalidae, see Chloropeta.
"Yellowbird" redirects here. For other uses, see Yellow Bird (disambiguation).

Yellow warbler
Male in breeding plumage, Canada

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Parulidae
Genus: Setophaga
Species:
S. petechia
Binomial name
Setophaga petechia
Subspecies

About 35 (but see text)

Distribution of the yellow warbler
  Breeding range
  Year-round range
  Wintering range
Synonyms
  • Dendroica petechia
  • Dendroica aestiva
  • Motacilla petechia (
    protonym
    )

The yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia) is a New World warbler species. Yellow warblers are the most widespread species in the diverse genus Setophaga, breeding in almost the whole of North America, the Caribbean, and down to northern South America.

Etymology

The genus name Setophaga is from Ancient Greek ses, "moth", and phagos, "eating", and the specific petechia is from Italian petecchia, a small red spot on the skin.[2]

Description and taxonomy

Other than in male breeding plumage and body size, all warbler subspecies are very similar. Winter, female and immature birds all have similarly greenish-yellow uppersides and are a duller yellow below. Young males soon acquire breast and, where appropriate, head coloration. Females are somewhat duller, most notably on the head. In all, the remiges and rectrices are blackish olive with yellow edges, sometimes appearing as an indistinct wing-band on the former. The eyes and the short thin beak are dark, while the feet are lighter or darker olive-buff.[3][4]

The 35 subspecies of S. petechia can be divided into three main groups according to the males' head color in the breeding season.

International Ornithological Congress World Bird List.[5]

Depending on subspecies, the yellow warbler may be between 10 and 18 cm (3.9 and 7.1 in) long, with a wingspan from 16 to 22 cm (6.3 to 8.7 in). They weigh 7–25 g (0.25–0.88 oz), varying between subspecies and whether on migration or not, globally averaging about 16 g (0.56 oz) but only 9–10 g (0.32–0.35 oz) in most breeding adults of the United States populations. Among standard measurements throughout the subspecies, the

Gloger's Rule.[7]

The golden warbler (petechia group; 17 subspecies[4]) is generally resident in the mangrove swamps of the West Indies. Local seasonal migrations may occur. On the Cayman Islands for example, S. p. eoa was found to be "decidedly scarce" on Grand Cayman and apparently absent from Cayman Brac in November 1979, while it had been a "very common" breeder in the group some ten years before, and not frequently seen in the winters of 1972/1973; apparently, the birds disperse elsewhere outside the breeding season. The Cuban golden warbler (S. p. gundlachi) barely reached the Florida Keys where it was first noted in 1941, and by the mid-20th century a breeding population was resident.[8] Though individual birds may stray farther north, their distribution is restricted by the absence of mangrove habitat.

They are generally smallish, usually weighing about 10 g (0.35 oz) or less and sometimes[9] as little as 6.5 g (0.23 oz). The summer males differ from those of the yellow warbler in that they have a rufous crown, hood or mask. The races in this group vary in the extent and hue of the head patch.

The mangrove warbler (erithachorides group; 12 subspecies[4]) tends to be larger than other yellow warbler subspecies groups, averaging 12.5 cm (4.9 in) in length and 11 g (0.39 oz) in weight. It is resident in the mangrove swamps of coastal Middle America and northern South America; S. p. aureola is found on the oceanic Galápagos Islands.[4] The summer males differ from those of the yellow warbler in having a rufous hood or crown. The races in this group vary in the extent and hue of the hood, overlapping extensively with the golden warbler group in this character.[4]

The American yellow warbler (aestiva group; 6 subspecies)

temperate North America as far south as central Mexico in open, often wet, woods or shrub. It is migratory, wintering in Central and South America. They are very rare vagrants to western Europe[3] and Scandinavia[10]

Vocalizations

Yellow warbler (aestiva group) song
Recorded in
Ontario, Canada
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The song is a musical strophe that can be rendered sweet sweet sweet, I'm so sweet, although it varies considerably between

territorial defense, they give hissing calls, while seet seems to be a kind of specialized cowbird alert (see below). Other calls are given in communication between pair-members, neighbors, or by young begging for food. These birds also communicate with postures and perhaps with touch.[3]

Ecology

nestlings, Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska
(USA)
reedbed, Mill Creek Streamway Park, Kansas
(United States)

American yellow warblers breed in most of

Amazon region, Bolivia and Peru.[3] The mangrove and golden warblers occur to the south of it, to the northern reaches of the Andes
.

American Yellow Warblers arrive in their breeding range in late spring – generally about April/May – and move to winter quarters again starting as early as July, as soon as the young are fledged. Most, however, stay a bit longer; by the end of August, the bulk of the northern populations has moved south, though some may linger almost until fall. At least in northern Ohio, yellow warblers do not linger, leaving as they did 100 years ago.[11]

The breeding habitat of American yellow warblers is typically

conspecific intruder that comes along.[3]

Roughly 60% of their diet is caterpillars. They also consume wasps,

geometer moths (Geometridae) – preferred over others.[16]

The

birds of prey, and many others. The odds of an adult American yellow warbler surviving from one year to the next are on average 50%; in the southern populations, by contrast, about two-thirds of the adults survive each year. Conversely, less than one American yellow warbler nest in three on average suffers from predation in one way or another, while two out of three mangrove and golden warbler nests are affected.[17]

Snakes, including the

domestic or feral cats, are similarly opportunistic predators. All these pose little threat to the nimble, non-nesting adults, which are taken by certain smallish and agile birds such as the American kestrel (Falco sparverius) and Cooper's hawk (Accipiter cooperii), and the sharp-shinned hawk (A. striatus). Other avian predators of adults have included peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) and merlins (F. columbarius). Owls such as great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) and eastern screech owls (Megascops asio) have been known to assault yellow warblers of all ages at night.[3][20]

These New World warblers seem to

brood parasites. The yellow warbler is a regular host of the brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater), with about 40% of all nests suffering attempted or successful parasitism. By contrast, the tropical populations are less frequent hosts to the shiny cowbird (M. bonariensis), with only 10% of nests affected. This may be due to the slightly larger size of shiny cowbirds, which are less likely to survive being fed by the much smaller warbler, compared to brown-headed cowbirds.[20] The yellow warbler is one of the few passerine proven to be able to recognize the presence of cowbird eggs in its nest.[20] Upon recognizing one the warbler will often smother it with a new layer of nesting material. It will usually not try to save any of its own eggs that have already been laid, but produce a replacement clutch. Sometimes, the parents desert a parasitized nest altogether and build a new one. Unlike some cuckoos, cowbird nestlings will not actively kill the nestlings of the host bird; mixed broods of Setophaga and Molothrus may fledge successfully.[17] However, success of fledging in yellow warbler nests is usually decreased by the parasitism of cowbirds due to the pressures of raising a much larger bird.[20]

Other than predation, causes of mortality are not well known. The maximum recorded ages[21] of wild yellow warblers are around 10 years. A wintering American yellow warbler examined near Turbo, Colombia was not infected with blood parasites, unlike other species in the study. It is unclear whether this significant, but wintering birds in that region generally lacked such parasites.[22]

Breeding

Yellow warbler nest with small clutch

As usual for members of the

fledging, the male's workload becomes proportionally higher.[3]

A breeding pair of yellow warblers. The female (right) is carrying nesting material.

The American yellow and mangrove (including golden) warblers differ in some other reproductive parameters. While the former is somewhat more of an

serially monogamous; some 10% of mangrove warbler and about half as many American yellow warbler males are bigamous. Very few if any American yellow warblers breed more than once per year, with just 5% of female mangrove warblers doing so. If a breeding attempt fails, either parent will usually try to raise a second brood.[17]

The

brooded for an average 8–9 days after hatching, and leave the nest the following day or the one thereafter. The mangrove warbler has only 3 eggs per clutch on average and incubates some 2 days longer. Its average post-hatching brooding time is 11 days. Almost half of the parents (moreso in the mangrove warbler than the American yellow warbler) attend the fledglings for two weeks or more after these leave the nest. Sometimes the adults separate early, each accompanied by one to three of the young.[23]

Some 3–4 weeks after hatching, the young are fully independent of their parents. They become

predation
frequently causing total loss of the clutch.

Status and conservation

Yellow warblers, in particular the young, devour many pest insects during the breeding season. The plumage and song of the breeding males have been described[3] as "lovely" and "musical", encouraging ecotourism. No significant negative effects of American yellow and mangrove warblers on humans have been recorded.[3]

Being generally common and occurring over a wide range, the yellow warbler is not considered a

riparian habitat is allowed to recover, particularly among the prolific American yellow warbler.[1][3]

The

Endangered Species Act (ESA) since 1970; other than for specially permitted scientific, educational or conservation purposes, importing it into the USA is illegal. The Californian yellow warbler (D. p./a. brewsteri) and Sonoran yellow warbler (D.p./a. sonorana) are listed as "species of concern" by the ESA.[26]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b BirdLife International (2020). "Setophaga petechia". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T22721657A137268484. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4
    .
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bachynski & Kadlec (2003)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Curson et al. (1994)
  5. ^ IOC World Bird List Family Parulidae Archived 2012-05-01 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Yezerinac, S. M., & Weatherhead, P. J. (1997). Extra–pair mating, male plumage coloration and sexual selection in yellow warblers (Dendroica petechia). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 264(1381), 527-532.
  7. ^ Bachynski & Kadlec (2003), AnAge (2009)
  8. ^ Cunningham (1966)
  9. ^ Olson et al. (1981)
  10. ^ "Canadisk fugl set i Danmark for første gang nogensinde - TV 2". 10 October 2022.
  11. ^ Henninger (1906), Bachynski & Kadlec (2003), OOS (2004)
  12. ^ "Setophaga petechia (Yellow Warbler or Trinidad Canary)" (PDF). University of the West Indies.
  13. ^ "Yellow Warbler". Audubon.org.
  14. ^ "Dendroica petechia (Yellow warbler)". Animal Diversity Web.
  15. ^ E.g. of Trophis racemosa (Moraceae): Foster (2007)
  16. ^ Bachynski & Kadlec (2003), Foster (2007)
  17. ^ a b c Bachynski & Kadlec (2003), Salgado-Ortiz et al. (2008)
  18. ^ E.g.Bachynski & Kadlec (2003)
  19. ^ a b E.g. : Bachynski & Kadlec (2003)
  20. ^ a b c d Lowther, P. E.; C. Celada; N. K. Klein; C. C. Rimmer & D. A. Spector. "Yellow Warbler- Birds of North America Online". The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 2013-12-13.
  21. ^ "Average lifespan (wild) 131 months" in Bachynski & Kadlec (2003) is a lapsus
  22. ^ Bachynski & Kadlec (2003), Londono et al. (2007), AnAge [2009]
  23. ^ a b Bachynski & Kadlec (2003), Salgado-Ortiz et al. (2008), AnAge [2009]
  24. ^ CITES and State of Michigan List listing are lapsus in Bachynski & Kadlec (2003)
  25. nominate subspecies
    it belongs to the golden/mangrove warbler group
  26. ^ Bachynski & Kadlec (2003), USFWS (1970, 2009abc)

References

Further reading

  • D. W. Snow (1966). "Annual cycle of the Yellow Warbler in the Galapagos".
    JSTOR 4511232
    .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Setophaga petechia.
Wikispecies has information related to Setophaga petechia.
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