Palm Warbler and Friend

November 16, 2022 ~ This is the last of my posts about birds seen during my mid-November afternoon around the boat dock at the end of Bay Avenue, in Freeport Texas. I showed the maps in a previous post, here.

I prefer to share my photos as soon after taking them as possible, because I might want to go back and try to get better images of a bird after researching it, or others might like to check out what I saw. In this case, I’ve allowed six busy and wonderful weeks to fly by, and this post is getting cold – my apologies. Time to get it out the door, to make way for more fun.

Swamp Sparrow sheltering from the chill wind
1/2500 sec. f/5.6 ISO 2500
Nikon D850 with Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR
(Click on any photo once to enlarge in a new window; close that window to return here.)

The piled-up sand berms along the dirt road around the little boat ramp lagoon host healthy crops of sunflowers and other tall weeds, and I noticed some active fluttering and chirping deep among the spare branches. I finally caught a clear, though dimly lit, shot of this little brown Swamp Sparrow. He stayed in the deep shade and played dodge-the-photographer, so I stepped back… and heard another interesting sound over to my right.

Immature or non-breeding Palm Warbler
1/2500 sec. f/5.6 ISO 2500
Nikon D850 with Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR

Was this also a sparrow? He certainly had the brown cap with dusty gray streak. But he didn’t have the broad-based seed-crushing sparrow’s bill. Or maybe he was a Butter-butt (Yellow-rumped Warbler), as there was a signature flash of yellow. But something wasn’t right. The Butter-butt is a lighter gray, and has darker streaks. And this bird’s yellow patch was not on his rump.

Palm Warbler showing off his signature tail
1/2500 sec. f/5.6 ISO 2500
Nikon D850 with Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR

I had to take the shots, and wait till I got home to look him up. This is a Palm Warbler, Setophaga palmarum, a migrant, only here during the winter months, and a new bird for me. The Palm Warbler comes in two color variations. This one is the Western Palm Warbler, which has much less yellow than the Eastern. Further, this bird is either an immature bird, or a non-breeding adult, so his colors are subdued. Sibley’s Birds says the Easterns winter mainly from Georgia through Louisiana, while Westerns winter all the way from Virginia through Texas as well as in the Caribbean and Central America (mingling with the Easterns in the middle).

Left: Range map for the Palm Warbler, courtesy of All About Birds; Right: Extent of the world’s boreal forests, courtesy of Science

The Palm Warbler’s breeding grounds are boreal forests, marshes and bogs across central and eastern Canada, where they feast on beetles, bugs, worms and other insects. On their winter grounds they add seeds and berries to their diet. In spite of their tropical-sounding name, they, along with the Blackpoll Warbler, are the northernmost breeding of all warblers (they were originally named by J. P. Gmelin, who collected a specimen during the winter on Hispaniola, a Caribbean island with lots of palm trees). I had to look up “boreal” forests – these are deciduous and conifer forests of plant and animal life that can withstand frigid temperatures year-round (including birds that can migrate south to escape the worst of the cold).

Palm Warbler in “don’t mess with me” stance
1/2500 sec. f/5.6 ISO 2500
Nikon D850 with Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR

He flew toward some end-of-season Ox-eye Daisy, Borrichia frutescens, and perched, boldly staring, to challenge my chittering camera.

Snapshot of the Warbler Undertail Guide, showing the characteristic Palm Warbler tail.

His brown eye stripe cuts right through his eye, ending at his narrow insect-catching warbler’s bill. The Palm Warbler’s genus name is “Setophaga”, meaning “moth-eater”, and referring to the shared behavior of this group of avid insectivores.

Normally, a straight-on head shot like the one above doesn’t help much with identification… but warblers are special. From below, their tails have characteristic color patterns. And in that shot (and the “showing off” image), you can see enough of the tail to made a pretty-sure identification; check the second image from the right on the second row. Yep, Palm Warbler.

The Warbler Guides are available as free downloads from Cornell Labs, which are helpful, since there are some 53 species of warbler.

Palm Warbler in winter plumage
1/2500 sec. f/5.6 ISO 2500
Nikon D850 with Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR

He has a buff chin, and loosely braided tan streaks down a chest marked with a very pale yellow wash. And he has bright yellow under-pants, or what birders term “undertail coverts”. Coverts are feathers that smooth the transition from one body part to another, keeping them aerodynamic. In this case, they smooth the transition from the lower belly to the tail.

A goodbye tail wag from the Palm Warbler
1/2500 sec. f/5.6 ISO 2500
Nikon D850 with Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR

During the breeding season, they tend to stay with their own species, but during the winter, they join mixed-species foraging flocks with sparrows, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Pine Warblers, and Yellow-rumped Warblers. So, my spotting him in the same plot as the Swamp Sparrow may have been more than coincidence: perhaps they were lunch buddies.

He turned to give me a good look at his winter-brown wings and tail, and then he was off through the late-season pink guara to find another seed head or juicy bug.