Two Warblers

Monday Sep 17, 2012

Yellow warbler

The trees at Iona were alive with waves of Yellow-rumped (mostly Myrtle) and the colourful Yellow warbler.  One of the Yellow warblers had a band (see pic) which is not unusual as the area is used regularly to collect date on migrating songbirds.

Yellow-rumped warbler (Myrtle)

Yellow-rumped warbler with band

Western Road Trip Part 5 (Cowbirds and Warblers)

Two female brown-headed cowbirds watch the path of a yellow warbler (below) In this particular area of Last Mountain Lake, Saskatchewan there were perhaps hundreds of warbler nests as well Red-eyed vireo, black-capped chickadee and smaller flycatchers that cowbirds could lay their eggs. This parasitic behaviour is a throw back to when the cowbirds followed the great buffalo herds across the American Mid-West.

Yellow warbler