Yellow-throated Warbler

Dendroica dominica

Rangewide Distribution: Southeastern United States
Abundance: Fairly common to common
Breeding Habitat: Oak, pine woods, baldcypress & sycamore swamps
Nest: Grass, bark, weeds & caterpillar silk, lined with down & feathers; in southeast, of Spanish moss, inland in pine tree
Eggs: 4 greenish gray-white with purple, red or brown marks & wreathed
Incubation: 12-13 (?) days
Fledging: days to flegling not known
image of Yellow-throated Warbler

Known historically as the "Sycamore" Warbler in the Mississippi River Valley (Widmann 1907), this species is most often located while it sings from the upper branches of a Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) tree. An alternative habitat is the mixed pine and hardwood forests of the Ozark Natural Division.

Code Frequency

Because this species nests in treetops, Atlasers usually based breeding confirmations on observations other than nest contents. The scarcity of observations of nest building, fledglings, suspected nest sites, fecal sacs carried by adults from nests and food being carried to young, are due to the difficulty of observing nests from the ground.

Distribution

The Yellow-throated Warbler's main distribution occurs within the forested regions of the Ozark, Ozark Border and Osage Plains natural divisions. The many forested riparian areas along Ozarks streams were the most frequent habitat in which this species was found. A few observations were recorded within the Eastern Glaciated Plains Natural Section north to the Iowa line. Although records of nesting activity exist north to Buchanan County in the Western Glaciated Plains Natural Section (Robbins and Easterla 1992), no Yellow-throated Warblers were observed within Atlas blocks in that section.
map of average number of Yellow-throated Warblers/100 stopsAverage Number of Birds / 100 stops

Abundance

This species was recorded on abundance counts only in the Ozark Natural Division. Special searches of riparian and mixed pine-hardwood forest areas in the Ozarks would likely provide a better picture of this species' abundance within appropriate habitat.

Phenology

Although first arrivals to the state begin appearing in March (Robbins and Easterla 1992), nest building was first observed on April 30. Food carried to young may be the best key to timing of this possibly two-brooded species (Ehrlich et al. 1988). Fledglings were observed from July 3 to August 21, certainly late enough to be from a second brood.

Notes

Although Friedmann (1963) documented only one case of Brown-headed Cowbird brood parasitism with this host, three incidents were recorded during the seven-year Atlas Project.

Breeding Phenology
Evidence (# of Records) MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP
NB (7) 4/30 6/08
FY (15) 5/20 7/13

Breeding Evidence

Reported in 212 (17.6%) of 1,207 blocks

image of pie chart
Blocks % of Blocks
  Confirmed 29 13.7%
Probable 63 29.7%
  Possible 120 56.6%

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Home|Lists of Illustrations and Tables|Preface|Acknowledgments|Introduction|The Natural Divisions of Missouri|Guide to Species Accounts|Index of Bird Accounts|Appendix A.|Appendix B.|Appendix C.|Appendix D.|Appendix E.|Literature Cited

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