Yellow-Rumped Warblers at Magee Marsh, Ohio: 5-3-17

Male Yellow-rumped Warbler in breeding plumage

Aptly nick-named "Butter-Butts"

These warblers are the only warbler species able to digest the waxes found in bayberries and wax myrtles.  Its ability to use these fruits allows them to winter farther north than other warblers, sometimes as far north as Newfoundland.

Males tend to forage higher in trees than the females do.

Yellow-rumps are perhaps the most versatile foragers of all warblers.  They're the warbler most likely to flutter out from a tree to catch a flying insect, and they're also quick to switch over to eating berries in fall.

We saw many, many males at the Magee Marsh Bird Trail boardwalk on Tuesday but when we returned on Wednesday we saw only two.  Most likely the vast majority of the Yellow-rumps had crossed Lake Erie with the favorable south wind overnight.  It would be interesting to know if some of the Yellow-rumps we will probably see for the next 4 days (we head into Canada on Friday afternoon) on the other side of the lake in Point Pelee Ontario, Canada are the same birds we saw here on Tuesday.  

Getting ready for winter.