Prairie Warbler

Dendroica discolor

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family PARULIDAE

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A tail-wagging yellow warbler with black streaks down its sides, the Prairie Warbler is found in scrubby fields and forests throughout the eastern and south-central United States, not on the prairies.

Cool Facts

• The male Prairie Warbler sings two song types, which closely resemble each other but differ subtly in volume and speed. The faster "Group A" song is directed at the female, for courtship and maintenance of the pair bond. The "Group B" song is sung at territory boundaries to deter other males.
• Female Prairie Warblers commonly eat the eggshells after their young hatch, consuming the shells in 15 to 90 seconds.

• The Prairie Warblers living in the Florida mangroves are considered to be a separate subspecies from the more widespread migratory ones. The Florida birds are slightly larger and have larger white spots in their tails.

Description

• Size: 11 cm (4 in)
• Weight: 6-9 g (0.21-0.32 ounces)

• Small songbird.
• Olive-green upperparts.
• Yellow throat and belly.
• Black streaks on face, sides and flanks.
• Wags tail.

• Yellow arc under eyes, bordered below by dark stripe.
• Large white spots in outer tail feathers.
• Reddish streaks on back.
• Bill blackish.
• Eyes dark brown.
• Legs black.
• Soles of feet yellowish.

Sex Differences

Sexes similar. Male has rufous streaks on back. Female lacks such streaks, has olive, not black face streaks, and is duller overall.

Male

Olive-green upperparts, with rufous streaks on back. Bright yellow throat, breast, and belly. Bold black streaks on sides and flanks. Bright yellow eyebrow stripe. Dark line through eye. Yellow crescent under eye, bordered below by dark arc.

Female

Dull, unmarked olive upperparts. Dark streaks on sides. Pale yellow underparts. Subtle markings on face, including light arc under eye, bordered below by darker semicircle.

Immature

Head gray with whitish around eyes, chest olive-yellow with indistinct dark stripes along sides.

Similar Species

• Pine Warbler is larger, with grayish wings and two white wingbars, and has only indistinct stripes along sides and does not persistently wag its tail.
• Palm Warbler has a rufous cap, reddish side streaks, and a dark line through the eye.
• Magnolia Warbler has darker back, distinct wingbars, a black-tipped tail, and a bright yellow rump.
• The rare Kirtland's Warbler has black streaks along the sides of a yellow chest and wags its tail, but it has a gray face and back, a thin, broken white eyering, and is larger and heavier.
• Song of Northern Parula also is an ascending series of buzzy notes, but the parula buzzes up the scale whereas the Prairie Warbler has distinctly separate notes.

Sound

Song is a rapid series of ascending buzzes. Calls vary; most common is a "chek" note.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from southern Maine to southern Missouri, southward to northern Florida and eastern Texas. Also resident along coasts of Florida.

Winter Range

Winters throughout Florida, Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, the Virgin Islands. Occurs uncommonly on the coasts of Belize and Honduras.

Habitat

Various shrubby habitats, including regenerating forests, open fields, and Christmas-tree farms. Florida residents live in mangrove forests.

Food

Insects, spiders, and other small invertebrates.

Behavior

Foraging

Gleans from leaves and branches. Sometimes hawks insects in the air.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Open cup of long plant fibers and other material, lined with fine grasses, mosses, and feathers, placed in trees or shrubs, usually less than 3 m (10 ft) from ground.

Egg Description

Pale brownish or gray, often with a ring of spots near one end and more spots scattered over the rest of the shell.

Clutch Size

2-5 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless, with some gray down.

Conservation Status

Declining throughout most of range. Declines largely attributable to loss of breeding habitat through development and natural change of shrubby habitat to forest.

Other Names

Fauvette des prés (French)
Verdín des las praderas (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Nolan, V., Jr., E. D. Ketterson, and C. A. Buerkle. 1999. Prairie Warbler (Dendroica discolor). In The Birds of North America, No. 455 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.