Prairie Warbler

Overview

Prairie Warbler: Small warbler, brown-streaked, olive-green upperparts with reddish-brown streaking, bright yellow underparts with black streaks on sides. Head has a yellow-green cap, yellow face, and dark eye, cheek stripes. Found in pine stands, mangroves and overgrown fields rather than prairies.

Range and Habitat

Prairie Warbler: Breeds from eastern Nebraska, central Wisconsin, southern Ontario, and central New England south to Oklahoma, the Gulf Coast, and Florida; local in many areas. Winters in southern Florida and in the tropics. Preferred habitats include mixed pine-oak barrens, old pastures, hillsides scattered with red cedars, open scrub, and mangrove swamps; not often found in prairies.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Prairie warbler was first described 1809 by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot, a French ornithologist.
Females commonly eat the eggshells after their young hatch.
These birds wag their tails frequently.
A group of warblers has many collective nouns, including a "bouquet", "confusion", "fall", and "wrench" of warblers.

The Prairie Warbler has a large range, estimated globally at 1,600,000 square kilometers. Native to the Americas and nearby island nations, this bird prefers subtropical or tropical forest and shrubland ecosystems as well as rural gardens. The global population of this bird is estimated at 1,400,000 individuals and does not show signs of decline that would necessitate inclusion on the IUCN Red List. For this reason, the current evaluation status of the Prairie Warbler is Least Concern.