BIRD SPECIES

Palm Warbler

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Setophaga palmarum

The Palm Warbler is a small songbird that occurs in two forms.

• Western Palm Warbler (Dendroica palmatrum palmarum) - breeds in the West part of the range. It is duller, and has whitish belly.
• Yellow Palm Warbler (Dendroica palmarum hypochrysea) - breeds in the East part. It is entirely yellow underneath.

It is a relatively large warbler measuring about 4.7 – 5.5 inches in length, with 7.9 – 8.3 inches wingspan and weight of around 7 – 13 grams.
It is dull brownish-olive above with yellow under the tail and throat.
Outside corners of its tail flash white in flight.

Eastern birds have yellow belly while western birds have white belly.

Both sexes are similar and during the breeding season, they have a rusty cap and some rusty streaking on their belly.
Nonbreeding birds have paler yellow undertails and dull brown crown.

CALL: Includes a loud “smack”, a loud and hard “chip”, and a thin and high “seet”.

SONG: An extremely high “sit-sit-sit- sit-sit-…” increasing in volume before fading.

Feeds primarily on insects, grasshoppers, beetles, flies, bugs, butterflies and moths, wasps, bees and ant larvae.

During fall and winter, it feeds on seeds, insects and berries, in addition to nectar from plants.

During migration and winter, they use weedy fields, forest edges, fence rows, and other areas with scattered trees and shrubs.

They breed in the boreal forest of the far north, where they use bogs with scattered evergreen trees and thick ground cover.

Breeds across Canada, from northern territories to Newfoundland, southward to Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York and Maine.

Winters along Pacific coasts of United States, and south eastern United States, the Yucatan, Central America and the Caribbean.

Their nest is an open cup of weed stalks, grass, sedges, bark shreds, rootlets, and ferns, and lined with fine grasses, and sometimes hair and feathers.
It is located in sphagnum moss at the base of a short tree.

The female lays 4 - 5 creamy white eggs, speckled with dark. Incubation lasts about 12 days, by female, fed by the male.

SOURCES:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org
http://www.oiseaux-birds.com
https://en.wikipedia.org