Wildlife Wednesday: The Yellow Warbler

by Zander Hine, Student Board Member

The Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia) is a completely yellow songbird found throughout Maryland. They prefer to live in dense shrubs near wet woodlands and their song boasts “sweet, sweet, sweet. I’m so sweet.” The Warblers are a neotropical migratory bird traveling down to Central and South America in the winter, and returning north in the spring. If you would like the bright colored birds to visit to your yard in the spring or summer, they are attracted to native shrubs and suet. Yellow warblers are threatened by habitat loss, as they live in riparian woodlands that are being destroyed, and pesticides are increasingly becoming a problem. Climate change is also threatening the yellow warbler as increased spring temperatures and wildfires are making their habitats uninhabitable. See a list of Yellow Warbler sightings in Washington County on eBird at https://ebird.org/species/yelwar/US-MD-043