Saturday, June 16, 2012

Butter Butts...

This female Yellow-rumped Warbler was flitting through the branches at the edge of the woods. She was low in the trees and very busy looking for insects. Suddenly she stopped and stared up at something. She looked backed and forth, eyeing it from different directions, sitting still...and giving me a great shot of her namesake...

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Dendroica coronata), aka Butter Butt...
It's easy to see how this warbler got its nickname! 



The yellow feathers on top of her head account for the scientific name of "coronata," which is from the Latin "corona," which means "crown."
Yellow-rumped Warblers have a beautiful broken white eye ring... 

...but it's that lovely little pat of butter that makes it easy to identify this beauty!

Yellow-rumps do not nest in our area, but they are plentiful and common during migration, and you can find them here in the winter. I've seen them every now and then along the Little Miami and at Winton Woods too.

...and their bellies are pretty too! 


These photos are all from the week I spent this May at Magee Marsh in Toledo, Ohio for the Biggest Week in American Birding festival.

Click here for another post on the sweet Butter Butt.


Note: Magee Marsh is one of the sites on the Nature Conservancy's Natural Treasures of Ohio.

17 comments:

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Hi Kelly, I had the yellow-rumped warbler once at my feeders --in winter. It was easy spotting that yellow rump!!!!!!

Great photos. Hope you are having a good summer so far!
Hugs,
Betsy

TexWisGirl said...

they are beautiful little things!

Arija said...

What a startling little rump she has! Gleaming lemon yellow to contrast with her browny uppers. Great shots all around.

holdingmoments said...

I love it when birds have helpful names to ID them lol

Friend of HK said...

A pretty little thing!

Roy said...

Great shots! I haven't seen any around here, but used to see them frequently back in Newport.

ShySongbird said...

What a pretty little bird! I should think there is no mistaking it.

Janice K said...

That does indeed look like a pad of butter....So pretty.

Carol Mattingly said...

It's a cutie.

Dan Huber said...

Wonderful photos. Cute little butter buts.

Guy said...

Hi Kelly

Nice shots of the warbler.

Guy

Kathy A. Johnson said...

With that headline, I just had to read your post! What a cute, buttery little bird!

Elaine said...

Another of your winter birds that nests here! They are such a sweet little bird.

Banjo52 said...

These great shots show me why it took me awhile to i.d. these critters. It's possible, I think, to see NONE of the yellow--and certainly not on the bottom side of the rump. They were up here about a month ago--not sure about now, and at 95 degrees I'm not gonna go looking.

This is my intro to "butter butt" as a nickname. That might have helped with i.d. too.

Kelly said...

...thank you!! I love when I see that little patch of yellow. I remember the first time I heard someone call a Yellow-rumped Warbler a "Butter Butt." I laughed out loud....thinking, I guess it makes sense. That little patch of yellow really does look like a pat of butter! :-)

Mary said...

Cute! Sure can see why they call them butter butts!

Andrea said...

Fantastic photos and what a sweet subject!