Month: October 2022

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/ resubmitted 10/2022
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.

For those of us who maintain a list of birds we’ve seen, the title above sounded scary. When I first received the notice on eBird that there was to be a 2022 update I wondered what changes were going to be made. I’d heard for years there were proposals that Yellow-rumped Warblers’ two sub-species (Myrtle and Audubon) may revert to their individual species. Was this one of the changes in 2022? What else was being considered?

eBird published on October 15 their article titled Taxonomy Updates Coming Soon. Based upon this article, I don’t think there will be any changes to my life list. The highlighted changes are the addition of 5 species: Bat Falcon (Falco rufigularis), Red-Masked Parakeet (Psittacara erythrogenys), Lilac-crowned Parrot (Amazona finschi), Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush (Monticola saxatilis), Chihuahuan Meadowlark (Sturnella lilianae). The last one of these is a split from Eastern Meadowlark with the Chihuahuan Meadowlark being seen in areas of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. Since I have yet to report any Meadowlarks in those areas, my list will remain unchanged.

Apparently there are some sequencing changes in the ABA Checklist but I have yet to find an article detailing those changes so at this time I don’t plan to update the Seabrook Island Birders Checklist.

Even though I don’t think the changes effect me, I plan to submit all my unsubmitted eBird lists prior to October 25 when eBird will automatically update any lists previously submitted (if needed). They have “warned” to “expect future updates to occur annually in October/November.” My Yellow-rumped Warblers may still be split in a future year….maybe one will be called “Butter Butt”. They have also stated “Stay tuned for more information about the 2022 Taxonomy Update, including a post on the eBird homepage summarizing all of the changes on the day of the update” but I’m not as “scared” of the changes as I was before I read the news release.

Submitted by: Judy Morr

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) biologists are celebrating the close of a successful shorebird and seabird nesting season on the newly restored Crab Bank Seabird Sanctuary. Biologists documented over 500 nests over the season, marking the first time coastal birds nested on the small island in Charleston Harbor since its disappearance to erosion.

SCDNR biologists captured these clips over summer 2022 using game cameras to monitor nesting and predation on the island. Black skimmers and gull-billed terns are the two seabird species featured in these clips.

You can read the complete news release here.