Northern Yellow Warbler

About the Northern Yellow Warbler

The Northern Yellow Warbler is the yellowest North American warbler - egg-yolk yellow from face to undertail, with yellow tail spots unique in the family. Breeding males add fine chestnut streaks down the breast. The dark beady eye stands out on the plain golden face.

Northern Yellow Warblers favor wet, shrubby habitats, especially willows, where they glean caterpillars and other insects. The sweet-sweet-sweet song is a signature sound of streamsides across the continent, and the species is a frequent cowbird host - famously building a new nest floor right over parasitized eggs.

In Texas it is an abundant migrant statewide in spring and fall, with breeding limited mainly to the northern edges of the state.