Length: 5.5 inches | Wingspan: 8.75 inches | Seasonality: Migrant |
ID Keys: (Male): Golden-yellow head and breast, white undertail coverts,
blue-gray wings.
ID Keys (Female): Females duller but with similar pattern as males. |
The Prothonotary Warbler is
so named because their bright yellow "hoods" are reminiscent of those
of a historical group of official scribes of the Catholic Church. Unlike
nearly every other warbler, they nest in tree holes and sometimes in bird
houses. With the large scale cutting of bottomland hardwoods in the
southeastern United States, numbers of the Prothonotary Warbler fell sharply by
the early 1900s. Numbers are rebounding today, and are helped by
conservationists placing birdhouses in their preferred swampy habitats.
2) WhatBird - Prothonotary Warbler
3) Audubon Guide - Prothonotary Warbler
Click on the map below for a higher-resolution view |
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South Dakota Status: Rare migrant in the southeastern part of the state. Formerly breeding records existed in the extreme southeast, but the closest contemporary breeding records are in Iowa and Nebraska (SDOU, 2002). |