Prairie Warbler
Setophaga discolor
Summary 4
The Prairie Warbler, (Setophaga discolor), is a small songbird of the New World warbler family.
Setophaga discolor 5
A medium-sized (5 inches) wood warbler, the male Prairie Warbler is most easily identified by its olive-green back, yellow breast, and streaked flanks with a conspicuous black eye-stripes. Female Prairie Warblers are similar to males, but are slightly duller on the back and head. Both sexes may be distinguished from the similarly colored Pine Warbler (Setophaga pinus) and Palm Warbler (Setophaga palmarum) by those species’ plain flanks and lack of eye-stripes. The Prairie Warbler breeds across much of the eastern United States and extreme southern Canada. Within that range, this species is mostly or completely absent from interior New England, the Midwest, the Gulf coast, and higher elevations in the Appalachian Mountains. In winter, Prairie Warblers may be found in Florida, the West Indies, southern Mexico, and the Caribbean coast of northern Central America. Prairie Warblers breed in a variety of open habitats, including overgrown fields, grassland, and coastal dunes. In winter, this species may be found in scrubland, mangroves, and open edges of tropical forests. Prairie Warblers primarily eat small invertebrates, including insects and spiders, but may also eat fruits and berries at some times of the year. In appropriate habitat, Hooded Warblers may be observed foraging for insects in the undergrowth. Birdwatchers may also listen for this species’ song, a series of “zee” notes rising in pitch at the end. Prairie Warblers are primarily active during the day, but, like many migratory songbirds, this species frequently migrates at night.
Habitat 6
Comments: BREEDING: Brushy second growth, dry scrub, low pine-juniper, mangroves, pine barrens, burned-over areas, sproutlands. Small patches of habitat may be suitable for breeding. Subspecies DISCOLOR primarily inhabits various types of shrubby vegetation: brushy second growth, dry scrub, low pine-juniper, jack pine stands, pine barrens, coastal pine subclimax, christmas tree farms, burned-over or cut-over areas, sproutlands, grassland-forest ecotone, powerline corridors, inner forest of Great Dismal Swamp, corridors in hardwood swamps, revegetating strip-mined lands, overgrown apple orchards, and abandoned fields in the breeding season. Many of these habitats are early successional and are suitable beginning about 5 years after burning or clearing and continuing for about 10-20 years.
Nests usually in a shrub, sapling, thicket, or fern clump, usually 0.3-3 m above ground, occasionally higher (Harrison 1978). In western Massachusetts powerline corridors, nests were 1-3 m above ground in vegetation clumps (1-10 m in diameter) of scrub oak, alder, or meadowsweet; nest locations had 30-100% cover (Houlihan, pers. comm.). In northern Arkansas, nesting areas included old fields invaded by cedars, locusts, sweetgum, persimmon, and pawpaw (Dechant, pers. comm.).
The following data are from Breeding Biology Research and Monitoring Database (BBIRD) sites in Arkansas plantations, where nests were mainly in hickory, elm (mostly winged), blackgum, oak, red maple, and vaccinium (D. Barber and T. Martin, unpubl. data). Mean values for nest site characteristics in thinned and young plantations were, respectively, 52 and 66% side cover, 67 and 80% overhead cover, 2.6 and 1.5 m nest height, 3.2 and 2.4 m plant height, 4.1 and 3.5 cm plant dbh, and presence of 8 and 13 small (<2.5 cm) and 70 and 54 large woody stems in a 5-m radius surrounding nests.
NON-BREEDING: In migration and winter, occurs in various woodland, second growth, brush, and thicket situations. Winter is spent mainly in arid lowland forest or scrub, especially second growth, pine, pastures, brushy fields; mangroves, shade trees, sun coffee, and forest edge also are used (Lack and Lack 1972, Arendt 1992). More common in dry forest of introduced mimosaceous trees at Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge (where insects more abundant and birds had higher fat scores) than in dry forest of native species in Guanica (Baltz, pers. comm.). Across the Caribbean region, shows moderate habitat specialization (Wunderle and Waide 1993). In winter in Puerto Rico, September-March, individuals showed strong site fidelity within and between seasons (nearly 50% returned for a second winter, 40% a third winter).
Iucn red list assessment 7
Red List Category
Red List Criteria
Version
Year Assessed
Assessor/s
Reviewer/s
Contributor/s
Justification
History
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Least Concern (LC)
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Least Concern (LC)
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Least Concern (LC)
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Lower Risk/least concern (LR/lc)
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Lower Risk/least concern (LR/lc)
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Lower Risk/least concern (LR/lc)
Sources and Credits
- (c) Matt Tillett, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/39955531@N00/5759998848
- (c) dominic sherony, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Prairie_Warbler_01.jpg/460px-Prairie_Warbler_01.jpg
- (c) James W. Beck, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by James W. Beck
- Adapted by Amanda Carrillo-Perez from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setophaga_discolor
- (c) Smithsonian Institution, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/34818225
- (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28864936
- (c) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/34419970
