Warbler Fun Facts

Different species of warblers have different shaped bills to help forage differently:

• American redstarts have a broad, flat bill good for hunting insects.
• Tennessee warblers have slender, pointed bills to probe flowers.
• Yellow-rumped warblers have stout bills good for foraging insects and berries.

Besides different shaped bills, different warblers have different foraging strategies:

• Black-and-white warblers will often creep along tree trunks looking for insects
• Blackburnian warblers will gleen prey off surfaces of leaves and twigs.
• Worm-eating warblers forage in dead leaves on the ground.

During spring migration, many warblers will leave the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and fly the entire span of the Gulf of Mexico in one night before landing on the U.S. Gulf coast.

To help identify warblers, look for the presence or absence of:

• Wing bars
• Tail spots
• Color streaking on the body

57 species of warblers breed in the United States.

Other members of the warbler family include:

• Northern parula
• American redstart
• Yellow-breasted chat
• Common yellowthroat
• Northern & Louisiana waterthrush
• Ovenbird