Orange-crowned Warbler

About the Orange-crowned Warbler

A plain, olive-yellow warbler with almost no bold markings, the Orange-crowned Warbler is defined by its very plainness - and by the fact that its namesake orange crown is nearly always hidden, flashed only when the bird is excited. Look instead for the faint blurry streaking on the breast, the thin sharp bill, and a subtle yellowish wash, brightest under the tail.

What it lacks in flash it makes up for in timing and toughness: while most warblers head to the tropics, Orange-crowns linger through the cold months, foraging actively and low for insects in brushy thickets, live oaks, and garden shrubs, and sipping at sap wells and feeders.

In Texas the Orange-crowned Warbler is a common migrant and winter bird across the state, one of the few warblers you can count on finding through the winter.

A note from behind the lens: their winter presence and love of low, accessible cover make them a good cold-season subject. Work a flowering shrub or a sap-drilled trunk where one is feeding, prefocus on an open twig, and use soft light to bring warmth to that understated plumage.