Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia)

County List:

Rule:

Forested or Nonforested Landscapes

      (Any Lowland Deciduous (Regen or Sap))
      or Lowland Brush
      or Upland Brush
   adjacent to:
      Riparian

Habitat List:

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Literature:

Habitat: Yellow Warblers prefer to nest in moist places along streams and ponds, in areas with dense bushes, shrubs, and low trees. Their nests also can be found in old fields and along the edges of woodlots. The Atlas Habitat Survey found the bird in shrub uplands in the southern LP and in shrub wetlands in the northern Lower Peninsula. Adults and young feed on the small flies, caterpillars, spiders, and small beetles common in such areas.

The large breeding population, ease identifying breeding adults, and the preference of the species for singing and nesting in open, sunny spots have resulted in a number of excellent studies of its breeding behavior, including several done in Michigan. The small, tightly woven nests are built of fine grasses, plant down, and feathers; their distinctive pale gray color comes from the presence of milkweed bark. Where available, hawthorn bushes in pastures are preferred nest sites, but Michigan researchers have also reported nests in willows, dogwoods, fox-grape and elderberry bushes. In a year when leafing was especially delayed, Reed found the earliest Yellow Warbler nests in juniper bushes. I once found a nest less than half a meter off the ground, and others have reported nests up to 6 m or more, but most are built in the forks of shrubs and small trees at heights of 2 to 3 m.

Habitat: Breeding: Farmlands, orchards, roadsides, and along streams and lakes.

Special Habitat Requirements: Scattered small trees or dense shrubbery.

Because it favors second growth and edges, less vulnerable to loss of habitat than some warblers.

Habitat: Bushes, swamp edges, streams, gardens. Breeds in a variety of habitats in east, including woods and thickets along edges of streams, lakes, swamps, and marshes, favoring willows, alders, and other moisture-loving plants. Also in drier second-growth woods, orchards, roadside thickets. In west, restricted to streamside thickets.

Feeding: Mostly insects. Up to two-thirds of the diet may be caterpillars of various kinds. Also feeds on mayflies, moths, mosquitoes, beetles, damselflies, treehoppers, and other insects, plus spiders; also eats a few berries.

Nest: Placed in upright fork of branches in shrubs, small trees, and briers from 2-60 feet above the ground. Nest is compact open cup of weed stalks, shredded bark, grass, lined with plant down or fur.