Prothonotary Warbler
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| Prothonotary Warbler | ||||||||||||||
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| Missing image Protonotaria-citrea-002.jpg | ||||||||||||||
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| Protonotaria citrea (Boddaert,, 1783) |
The Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea) is a small songbird of the New World warbler family.
These birds have an olive back with blue-grey wings and tail, yellow underparts, a relatively long pointed bill and black legs. Adult males have a bright orange-yellow head; females and immature birds are duller in colour and have a yellow head.
Their breeding habitat is hardwood swamps in southern Canada and the eastern United States. This bird nests in a cavity, sometimes using old Downy Woodpecker nests. The male often builds several incomplete unused nests in his territory; the female builds the real nest.
These birds migrate to the West Indies, Central America and northern South America.
They forage actively in low foliage in wet areas; these birds mainly eat insects and snails.
The song of this bird is a loud repeated tweet-tweet-tweet-tweet.
These birds are declining in numbers due to loss of habitat. They are also frequently victimized by the Brown-headed Cowbird.
This bird was named after officials in the Roman Catholic Church known as the protonotarii, who wore golden robes.