Sunday, March 25, 2012

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warblers are one of the few warbler species that hang around in southern Connecticut over the winter, but they also start to become more common when spring migration hits. This afternoon, a female Yellow-rumped Warbler showed up outside our apartment's office window, the first one I've seen this year:
 

I think these little birds are just adorable. I'm assuming this one is a female because the males should by now be getting into their breeding plumage, mostly slate gray and bright yellow and white. On closer inspection, this girl actually looks like she has something wrong with her beak.... I know abnormalities like this can happen sometimes, but I don't know what might've caused it in this case. She seemed to be foraging for food and getting along just fine despite her crooked beak, so I'm not too worried. If nothing else, it makes her unique:
 

She fluttered around our Red Cedar's branches, hunting for insects and plucking off some of the last berry-like cones from last fall, occasionally showing off the yellow spot on top of her head:
 

And yep, there's the characteristic yellow right above her tail, too:
 

Now that I know what she looks like, I'm going to keep an eye out for this girl in case she visits us again someday. Thank, you, little yellow-butt, for stopping by and brightening up an otherwise drizzly-dreary day!

No comments:

Post a Comment