northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's a Yellow-rumped Warbler from last spring. Unfortunately my best picture doesn't show any sign of the yellow rump for which it was named; I've added a 2nd picture where you can see a trace of the yellow rump feathers. As I've mentioned before , it's a little uncertain whether the various subspecies of Yellow-rumped Warbler should be spun off as separate species. Our local subspecies is the Myrtle Warbler , and has a white throat. The other main subspecies, the Audubon's Warbler , has a yellow throat instead. Both subspecies are considered versatile and creative foragers for food by bird standards. (Presumably this gives them a balanced and healthy diet.) May 5, 2023 at Duke Island Park Photo 282301417, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) May 5, 2023 at Duke Island Park Photo 282301452, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

I think this is a Yellow-rumped Warbler that was entering its 1st winter. I say that because the lower half of the bird has the white and dark markings of an adult but has the light brown plumage on the head going down the back. Presumably it'll have adult plumage after its next molt. By the time you get to the Rocky Mountains, Yellow-rumped Warblers have a different look since they've got a different subspecies of Yellow-rumped Warblers; more on those complications are here . And this video has a few more factoids on our yellow-rumped friends. October 16, 2022 at the Negri Nepote Native Grassland Preserve Photo 250354374, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a fairly well-known bird that I don't often get a picture of: the Yellow-rumped Warbler . You can actually see their famous yellow rump in the second picture. These birds mostly visit us in the winter, taking advantage of our (relatively) balmy winters (compared to their breeding range that can go pretty far north into Canada). The Yellow-rumped Warbler may not be a species soon , and this gets to the heart of what we consider a species to be. Prior to 1973 our eastern population of Yellow-rumped Warblers was called Myrtle Warblers [1], and another western population was called Audubon Warblers [2]. But then it was discovered that these 2 populations were interbreeding very readily in one range overlapping area, and so in 1973 they were grouped together into 1 species, the Yellow-rumped Warbler. But ornithologists have continued to study these birds, and have concluded that while the birds in the overlapping range have a mix of DNA between the eastern/western populations...