Setophaga coronata

Yellow-rumped Warbler – Setophaga coronata

Butter-butt.  Yep, that’s the nickname of this little warbler, and how appropriate it is.  A Yellow-rumped Warbler looks like somebody just spread a little bit of butter on its butt.

We only see these little guys here in the winter.  In the summer months they head north up into Canada and Alaska. [3]  When they are here, you see them everywhere.  On the Georgia coast one January it seemed that anytime a small bird moved in a thicket or group of small trees, you could bet it was a Yellow-rump.

Yellow-rumped Warbler – Setophaga coronata

During winter, Yellow-rumped Warblers find open areas with fruiting shrubs or scattered trees, such as parks, stream-side woodlands, open pine and pine-oak forest, dunes (where bayberries are common), and residential areas.  On their tropical wintering grounds they live in mangroves, thorn scrub, pine-oak-fir forests, and shade coffee plantations. [1]

They are primarily insectivorous. The species is perhaps the most versatile foragers of all warblers. Beyond gleaning from leaves like other New World warblers, they often flit, flycatcher-like, out from their perches in short loops, to catch flying insects. [1]

References and Additional Information

[1] Wikipedia: Yellow-rumped Warbler
[2] The Sibley Guide to Birds, second edition – David Allen Sibley
[3] Cornell – All About Birds: Yellow-rumped Warbler
[4] Cornell – All About Birds: Yellow-rumped Warbler – sound