[Tweeters] Yellow-rumped Warbler

[Dennis Paulson]

Hello tweeters,

Just a note to share my constant amazement about this successful species. We always have a few in our yard throughout the winter. They are mostly Audubon’s, but we’ve had a Myrtle or two in some winters. They not only take suet and Bark Butter (and of course whatever insects they can find) by both perching and hovering, but they eat seeds as well, something you don’t think about when thinking of warblers.

Yellow-rumps will fly up to the suet and grab a piece, and if it falls from their bill, they immediately drop to the ground to pick it up. They will also hunt below the suet feeders to find pieces that fickers and others have dropped. 

I put seeds, both sunflower and millet, on the window ledge outside my office on the second floor, and one is now scarfing them down, visiting repeatedly this morning and presumably digesting for a while before returning. I hadn’t seen that before. The ledge is usually occupied by juncos and Black-capped Chickadees and when they are in town, Pine Siskins, although it has been visited by Red-breasted Nuthatches, Bewick’s Wrens (which also eat seeds!), Spotted Towhees, Song Sparrows, and House Finches.

Black-capped Chickadees are daily visitors, but even though Chestnut-backed Chickadees are in the yard every day, I have never seen one on my ledge. They really are very different birds. Birds are amazing animals.

Dennis Paulson
Maple Leaf, Seattle