A Yellow-throated Warbler

Early this afternoon a light green haze of new leaves coming out seemed to hover in the woods on the edge of our back yard. The sun felt very warm – mid 80s again, I think – and there’s no shade yet from the oaks beside the deck. But almost all of the trees are showing some signs of leaves or buds already. Water oaks, sweet gums and tulip poplars have new green or yellow-green leaves, and even the white oaks show a flush of color and small buds on the highest branches.

Yellow-rumped Warblers seemed to be everywhere, flying from tree to tree, with dry check calls scattering as they moved. A Cardinal sang, and a Carolina Wren, a Pine Warbler. An Eastern Phoebe hunted quietly from low branches and sometimes from the deck rail. Titmice, Chickadees and Brown-headed Nuthatches chattered in the pines. A Green Anole with a very long, thin tail scuttled toward the ferns. Carpenter bees, wasps, and butterflies drifted by.

Everything seemed lazy, warm and perfect for a nap – and then a very sweet, clear song appeared in the woods not far away, and came closer. It’s a song I never can manage to remember – there’s something elusive about it for me – so when I found the singer among the needles of a tall pine, its flashy yellow, black and white plumage was a sudden surprise, as it always is – a crisp, intensely colorful bird against the hazy background of the day. A Yellow-throated Warbler.

A small, slender, willowy bird with a long thin bill, a Yellow-throated Warbler has a black and white striped face, white belly, and very bright yellow-gold throat and upper chest. Its back is gray, with white wing bars, a white spot on the side of the neck, and black streaks down white sides under the wings.

Well-named, I guess, though the name seems too plain and doesn’t fully capture its flare and spirit – the Yellow-throated Warbler crept quickly over the branches of the pine, searching through clumps of needles, and several times flew up to hawk an insect from the air. After four or five minutes in the pine, it flew further into the woods and out of sight, but it seemed to stay around because I heard its song again, two or three different times, later in the afternoon.

Leave a Reply