Prothonotary Warbler

About the Prothonotary Warbler

The Prothonotary Warbler is molten gold poured into a bird, an almost unreal orange-yellow head and breast set against blue-gray wings. The name honors papal clerks who wore golden robes, and birders know it affectionately as the swamp candle.

It is one of only two warblers in North America that nest in cavities, claiming old woodpecker holes and nest boxes in flooded timber. A male singing tsweet-tsweet-tsweet over dark swamp water is one of the finest sights in southern birding.

These photographs were taken at Ray Roberts Lake State Park north of Dallas in May, where a pair worked the flooded bottomland timber at Isle du Bois.