Month: November 2021

Yellow-rumped Warbler – Setophaga coronata
Length:  5.5″; Wingspan: 9.25″; Weight: 0.43 oz.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are one of the most common warblers in North America and abundant on Seabrook Island from fall through spring.  The Yellow-rumped Warbler is sometimes referred to as “Butter Butt” due to its bright yellow rump.  It was formally called Myrtle Warbler in the East because it is the only Warbler able to digest the wax-coated berries of the Wax Myrtles.  On Seabrook, Butter Butts are our most obvious and widely distributed winter Warbler.  They arrive in November and depart in April.  You will see them in small flocks in open woodlands and brushy habitats.  This bird constantly “chirps” which is a contact call that keeps the flock together.

The Yellow-rumped is medium-sized warbler with a long narrow tail and stout dark bill.  In winter, the females, males and young are a paler streaked gray-brown, have bright yellow rumps and usually yellow side patches.  In the spring before they leave Seabrook Island, the male is dark blue-gray upper parts; white throat, breast and belly are white and heavily streaked with black.  Its rump, crown and small area at the sides of the breast are yellow.  There are two broad white wing bars. The female is brownish with the similar patterns.

In winter, Yellow-rumped warblers can be found in open pine and pine-oak forests and dunes where bayberries are common.  During this time they mainly eat berries and fruits, particularly wax-coated berries of bayberries and wax myrtles.  This bird has unique gastrointestinal traits that allow it to subsist on this unusual food source.  This makes them a very winter hardy bird allowing them to winter farther north than other warblers.

In the spring/summer these warblers are found in mature coniferous and mixed coniferous-deciduous woodlands feeding on insects including caterpillars, ants, leaf beetles, grasshoppers and spiders.  You might see them acting like Flycatchers as they leap off perches flying up to catch a passing insect.  They also eat wild seeds from beach grasses and goldenrod and may come to feeders to eat sunflower seeds, raisins, peanut butter and suet.

Yellow-rumped warblers are active and noisy birds.  They constantly chatter as they forage.  Their flight is agile and swift and the birds often call as they change direction.  Their yellow rump and white tail patches are very noticeable while flying.  Their song is a loose trill, but rising in pitch or dropping toward end and the call note is a loud “chek.”

A group of warblers has many collective nouns, including a “bouquet”, “confusion”, “fall”, and “wrench” of warblers.

If you would like to learn more about this bird visit The Cornell Lab of Ornithology – All About Birders: Yellow-rumped Warbler and Birds of Seabrook Island: Yellow-rumped Warbler

This blog post is part of a series SIB will publish on a regular basis to feature birds seen in the area, both migratory and permanent residents.  When possible we will use photographs taken by our members.    Please let us know if you have any special requests of birds you would like to learn more about.

(click on a photo to view as a slide show)

Yellow-rumped Warbler – Bob Hider

Yellow-rumped Warbler – Charley Moore

Passerine E – Charley Moore

Yellow-rumped Warbler – Carl Helms

Range Map of Yellow-rumped Warbler – Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – Sphyrapicus varius
Length:  7.1-8.7″; Wingspan: 13.4-15.7″; Weight: 1.5-1.9 oz.

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is the only woodpecker in eastern North America that is completely migratory. Although a few individuals remain throughout much of the winter in the southern part of the breeding range, most head farther south, going as far south as Panama. Females tend to migrate farther south than do males.

A Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker has a red cap but not the nape. It has a striped face and a prominent white stripe on side. It’s black bib, patterned underparts also distinguish it from the red-bellied woodpecker.

As the name indicates, sapsuckers rely on sap as a main food source. The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker makes two kinds of holes in trees to harvest sap. Round holes extend deep in the tree and are not enlarged. The sapsucker inserts its bill into the hole to probe for sap. Rectangular holes are shallower, and must be maintained continually for the sap to flow. The sapsucker licks the sap from these holes, and eats the cambium of the tree too. New holes usually are made in a line with old holes, or in a new line above the old. Then, after the tree leafs out, the sapsucker begins making shallower, rectangular wells in the phloem, the part of the trunk that carries sap down from the leaves. This sap can be more than 10 percent sugar. These phloem wells must be continually maintained with fresh drilling, so the sap will continue to flow. Sapsuckers tend to choose sick or wounded trees for drilling their wells, and they choose tree species with high sugar concentrations in their sap, such as paper birch, yellow birch, sugar maple, red maple, and hickory. They drill wells for sap throughout the year, on both their breeding and wintering grounds. In addition to sap, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers also eat insects (mostly ants) and spiders, gleaning them from beneath a tree’s bark like other woodpeckers. And at times they perch at the edge of a tree branch and launch after flying insects to capture them in midair, like a flycatcher. Sapsuckers are also attracted to orchards, where they drill wells in the trees and eat fruit.

Yellow-belled Sapsuckers perch upright on trees, leaning on their tails like other woodpeckers. They feed at sapwells—neat rows of shallow holes they drill in tree bark. They lap up the sugary sap along with any insects that may get caught there. Sapsuckers drum on trees and metal objects in a distinctive stuttering pattern. Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers live in both hardwood and conifer forests up to about 6,500 feet elevation. Occasionally, sapsuckers visit bird feeders for suet.

Sapsuckers are common on Seabrook in winter but are less noisy and may be less obvious than other woodpeckers. They are “common but inconspicuous.” Look for their “wells” – drilled holed lined up around the trunk and marking trees to see where they feed.

Check out this cool YouTube video of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker eating from the already drilled holes in a tree:

If you would like to learn more about this bird visit:

• The Cornell Lab of Ornithology – All About Birders: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Article submitted by:  Judy Morr
Photographs provided by: Ed Konrad

This blog post is part of a series SIB will publish on a regular basis to feature birds seen in the area, both migratory and permanent residents.  When possible we will use photographs taken by our members.    Please let us know if you have any special requests of birds you would like to learn more about.

If you follow Charleston County rare-bird sitings, you would have seen several recent postings of a Bar-tailed Godwit.  It has been seen in a lagoon on the Ocean Course of Kiawah.   SIB participants in our Learning Together at Kiawah on Sunday were able to capture a good view of this rare bird.  Research on the Audubon’s site resulted in finding the information below.

Bar-tailed Godwit – Limosa lapponica

The Bar-tailed Godwit is a sandpiper.  It is a relatively short-legged species of godwit. The bill-to-tail length is 15–16 in, with a wingspan of 28–31 in. Males average smaller than females but with much overlap; males weigh 6.7–14.1 oz, while females weigh 9.2–22.2 oz; there is also some regional variation in size  with the European sub-species being the smallest. The adult has blue-grey legs and a long, tapering, slightly upturned bi-colored bill: pink at the base and black towards the tip. The neck, breast and belly are unbroken brick red in breeding plumage, and dark brown above.  Females breeding plumage is much duller than males, with a chestnut to cinnamon belly.  Breeding plumage is not fully apparent until the third year, and there are three distinguishable age classes; during their first migration north immature males are noticeably paler in color than more mature males. Non-breeding birds seen in the Southern Hemisphere are plain grey-brown with darker feather centers, giving them a striped look, and are whitish underneath. Juveniles are similar to non-breeding adults but more buff overall with streaked plumages on flanks and breast.

The birds’ main source of food in wetlands is bristle-worms (up to 70%), supplemented by small bivalves and crustaceans. In wet pastures, bar-tailed godwits eat invertebrates.  The bird seen on Kiawah is usually seen foraging in shallow water, probing its long beak into the sand below the surface.

The recently sited bird is assumed to be a European sub-species.  This subspecies typically breeds in Scandanavia to northwest Siberia.  They typically winter on the western coasts of Europe and Africa from the British Isles and the Netherlands south to South Africa, and also around the Persian Gulf.  Articles about other subspecies mention breeding near Bearing Straight in Russia and western Alaska then winter in Australia and New Zealand.  These birds are known to fly non-stop for 8 days during their migration.

If you would like to learn more about this bird visit:

• eBird’s Species Description: Bar-tailed Godwit
• Audubon Field Guide: Bar-tailed Godwit

Article submitted by: Judy Morr
Photographs provided by: Michael Harhold and Walter Brooks

Palm Warbler – Setophaga palmarum
Length:  5.5″;  Wingspan 8″;  Weight:  0.36 oz.

The Palm Warbler is one of the wood warblers. It is fairly common on Seabrook in the winter months and most should be leaving or have left by now. The most obvious field mark is its tail-wagging habit. Although it is a rather dull olive on its back, as it wags, it shows its brighter yellow underparts. You also might pick up the soft striping on its breast and sides. The male sports a rusty-colored cap in its breeding plumage although we would be less likely to see that here because it does not breed here.

This warbler will eat some seeds and fruits in the winter months but it prefers insects.

The Palm Warbler has a weak trill like that of the Chipping Sparrow, but slower. It is primarily on one note but increases slightly in intensity as it progresses.

Although its name would seem to indicate that this bird is found mostly in palm trees, in fact it can be seen in a variety of habitats: open woodlands, low in thickets of shrubs, on the ground, and in open fields.

If you would like to learn more about this bird visit:

• The Cornell Lab of Ornithology – All About Birders: Palm Warbler

Article submitted by: Marcia Hider 2017 and repulised by SIB
Photographs provided by: Ed Konrad & Glen Bartley

This blog post is part of a series SIB will publish on a regular basis to feature birds seen in the area, both migratory and permanent residents.  When possible we will use photographs taken by our members.    Please let us know if you have any special requests of birds you would like to learn more about.