Yellow-rumped warbler - this is the first decent photo I have gotten.

Yellow-rumped (Audubon) warbler.  They have finally arrived.

I can remember seeing my first yellow-rumpted warbler just over 30 years ago.  Actually, there was a flock of them, and they briefly alit on a tree at the confluence of two streams in the town I lived in.  It was the bright yellow patch on the birds' rumps that caught my eye and led to their identification.  Since then, I have seen them numerous times, but have only gotten poor shots of them.  My luck turned the other day.

I have only ever seen the birds near water bodies.  Mostly, it is fresh water, although I saw one way out on Portland Island once.  Last year, I saw a number of them flying around capturing insects on the wing at the pond on the back-side of Knox Mountain.  While visiting Munson Pond on Tuesday this week, I saw another small group.  This time, I managed to get a few nice shots.

There are two variants of the Yellow-rumped warbler.  The one above does not have a black mask and is dubbed the Audubon warbler and is found in western North America.  If they possess a black mask, it is the Myrtle variant.  That subspecies is found in the east.  The two used to be considered different species, but in 1973 the American Ornithologists Union combined them and dubbed them yellow-rumped warblers.

I don't have any good shots showing the yellow rump, but I have one I took at the Palm Springs Zoo some years back that is horribly blurred, but you can clearly see the tell-tale patch.


Lovely birds. Looking forward to seeing more of them.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com

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