April 11, 2010 - Yellow Warblers

Welcome to the Nature Notebook.

A flash of yellow among the shrubs appears and vanishes in an animated pattern. Popping into view at the top of a bush, it perches glowing in the morning sun. The small bird tilts its head to offer a song to the spring morning, but mostly to females of its kind. This yellow warbler is newly arrived after wintering in South America. Yellow warblers are early birds of the wood warbler group to return each spring. As their name implies, male yellow warblers sport a golden yellow plumage with rusty streaks on the breast. Males quickly establish territories in old fields and brushy areas often along streams. These small birds spend the summer here feasting on insects and raising their young before slipping away on a return trip south.

This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.