14 October 2013. Cayuga ON. The Yellow-rumped, formerly Myrtle, Warbler is a hardy soul. Unlike its delicate, early to leave, tropical class-mates, (the Blackburnian Warbler comes to mind) the Yellow-rumped doesn’t need to go so very far south; they can live, subsist anyway, on the berries of winter. A precious few even hang around here well into the winter and with occasional sightings in March, it’s probable that they make it out the other side. But most of them leave, turning off the lights as they go.
I spent most of the morning at the bird observatory. The property was also the site of a classic car show and by 11.30 I gave up, the combination of the Beachboys at full volume and BBQ starter fluid was more than I needed. But I completed the daily census and with the help of a young birder with eyes and ears one-fifth the age of mine, we turned up 27 species – a good haul.
Red-winged Blackbirds predominated with well over 150 counted, plenty of Cedar Waxwings too – about 60, White-throated Sparrows (11) and Yellow–rumped Warblers (45 – although really we lost count), all signs of the progress of fall.
This Yellow-rumped Warbler (Bird of the Day) was one of many flitting and dodging around us. Most of them were impossible to follow but this pretty little thing decided to sit long enough for a photo-shoot. It’s probably a female hatched this year so there’s little you can point to as a clear field mark, it’s perhaps a good example of how unremarkable Yellow-rumps can appear. For me it’s a combination of one or more clues: The time of year: their liquid contact note – ‘plip’; the sometimes streaky breast with yellow patches towards the shoulders or; the rather bulky size. All help, but always diagnostic (provided it’s visible) is the yellow rump.
The following four shots of a male in spring show the classic Yellow-rumped field marks well. Apart from the splashes of yellow, the back and wings are a much more intense grey/black.
(All pictures visible only on the My Bird of the Day website, not if you’re reading this as an email.)