BIRD SPECIES

Yellow Warbler

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Setophaga petechia

The Yellow Warbler is a small, evenly proportioned songbird with medium- length tail and rounded head. It is easy to recognize. It is yellower than other warblers, with yellow gold plumage, and reddish streaks on breast.

Both sexes measure about 4.7 - 5.1 inches in length, with a wingspan of 6.3 - 7.9 inches and weight of 9 - 11 grams.

Males and females are similar, but females may have not streaks on underparts, or very few. Upperparts are yellow gold tinged with olive green. Underparts are yellow.

Wings are darker, with yellowish fringes and tips, from median feathers to great coverts, forming narrow inconspicuous wing bars. The bill is slender and pointed. A weak yellow eye-ring contrasts with the very dark eyes. Legs are pale brown.

Males are generally brighter, overall during breeding season.

Immatures are similar to adult females, but are paler and duller. Generally they lack reddish streaks on breast. Yellow patches on tail are reduced.

CALL: A variety of short chip notes, some with a metallic sound and some with a lisping or buzzing quality. Males sometimes alternate chip notes with their songs, and females may answer a song with a high-pitched chip. Both sexes use a high, hissing note in territorial defense, and may confront cowbirds with a "seet" call. 

SONG: A sweet series of 6–10 whistled notes that accelerate over the course of the roughly 1-second song and often end on a rising note. The tone is so sweet that people often remember it with the mnemonic "sweet sweet sweet I’m so sweet".
The songs are a common sound of spring and early summer mornings and may be repeated as often as 10 times per minute.

Eats primarily insects but occasionally it feeds also on berries. It also consumes spiders. It prefers grubs of small insects and caterpillars.

Likes wetlands where insects are abundant. Willow tree is one of the characteristics of its habitat in northern Mexico, and mangroves in South.

Its habitat includes marsh and stream shores with willows, and wetlands with vegetation. They may live also in dry areas such as bushes, orchards and farmlands, forest edges and urban gardens.

It prefers areas with scattered trees, thick shrubs and any wet and shady area.

Lives most of year in North America, Alaska, Northern Canada and 2/3 Northern United States.

Winters in Southern California, Southern Florida and Southern Brazil, Amazon, Bolivia and Peru.

The female builds a deep open cup-shaped nest with stems, bark chips, grasses, hair, vegetal down and spiders’ web. It is carefully built in a tree or a bush.

She lays 4 - 5 white or slightly bluish eggs, spotted brown or purplish. Incubation lasts about 10 - 14 days, by female fed by the male.

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