Prairie Warbler
The Prairie Warbler pumps its tail more consistently than any other warbler species besides the waterthrushes and the Palm Warbler. Although Prairie Warblers pump their tails less emphatically than Palm Warblers, with longer intervals between up and down motions, this habit is a useful aid in identification.

Prairie Warblers appear to be inaptly named, as they occur mainly in successional and other shrubby habitats, rather than the prairies of the Great Plains. They were perhaps named for the savanna-like open grassy woodland of the South, locally called prairies. The Prairie Warbler is one of the species that benefited from human changes to the landscape. Prior to European colonization they were rare or absent from much of their current range, but moved into favorable habitats created by the clearing of forests, and later by the abandonment of agricultural areas. Typical Prairie Warbler breeding habitat includes brushy second growth and abandoned old fields, Christmas tree plantations, overgrown apple orchards, powerline corridors, and burned areas. Prairie Warblers use earlier successional stages than other warbler species. They use cleared or burned habitats after about five years, and occupy these habitats for 10 to 20 years.

Stable naturally occurring habitats favored by Prairie Warblers include shrubby vegetation in sand dunes found along the Atlantic Coast and parts of the Great Lakes, forest-grassland transition, oak and pine barrens, ridgetops, and cliff edges. They avoid closed canopy forests, although a population does occur in the understory of the hardwood forests of the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia. A separate small and declining population occurs in the mangroves of southern Florida. This subspecies averages grayer above and paler below than the typical northern Prairie Warbler, but is not generally separable in the field. It is non-migratory, unlike the subspecies that occurs elsewhere.

The nominate subspecies occurs throughout the southeastern United States, from eastern Texas and Oklahoma east to the Atlantic Coast and from the Gulf Coast as far north as southern New England, and locally to the Great Lakes area. Prairie Warblers abandon this breeding range as the population migrates to winter in the Caribbean, especially in the Bahamas and West Indies. Some winter in the southern half of Florida with the resident population.
Prairie Warbler Range Map

Males start singing as early as March when they begin their northward migration. Prairie Warbler songs are distinctive, consisting of a two-second series of thin, high notes beginning on one pitch, then rising in tone. Males are sometimes polygamous. Females construct nests of small leaves, grass, fern and seed down, bound with spider web, usually within ten feet of the ground. The female incubates the four or five eggs on her own, although the male helps feed the hatchlings. Prairie Warblers are subject to heavy cowbird parasitism, and sometimes renest several times in a season.

Description: Prairie Warblers are smallish long-tailed warblers with a distinctive facial pattern in all plumages. They are the only warblers with bright yellow underparts and face with a dark malar stripe along the lower border of the cheek separating the yellow throat from a yellow crescent under the eye. They have a yellow supercilium, dark eyeline, and dark streaks along the flanks. The yellow underparts are somewhat paler at the undertail coverts. The crown and upperparts are olive green, with chestnut spotting on the back, and two pale wingbars. Females and immatures are duller with less distinct, but still visible facial markings.

Prairie Warblers are sometimes confused with Pine Warblers (D. pinus), but Pine Warblers are larger, less boldly marked, lack the prominent facial markings and yellow crescent below the eye, and have white undertail coverts. The Palm Warbler shares the tail-wagging habit, has yellow supercilium and dark eyelines, and may be quite yellow underneath, but with darker upperparts and a rusty crown.


Visit Shaw Creek Bird Supply and see our selection of Bird Houses, Bird Feeders, Hummingbird Feeders & Heated Bird Baths .

Copyright © 2003 Shaw Creek Bird Supply