Happy Mystery Monday! Can you guess what is pictured the photo below?
The answer to last week’s mystery is a yellow-rumped warbler, Setophaga coronata, pictured below:
Affectionately known locally as “butterbutt”, the yellow-rumped warbler is the most widespread and common warbler in North America
This colorful warbler is tiny and hyperactive. It’s so good at hiding behind leaves, most people never see them at all.
The female yellow-rumped warbler makes a cupped nest of twigs, pine needles, grasses, and rootlets. She may also include horse and deer hair, moss and lichens. She lines the nest with fine hair and feathers, sometimes woven into the nest in such a way that they curl up and over the eggs. The nest takes about ten days to build and is often perched on the horizontal branches of conifers, anywhere from 4-50 feet off the ground.
This bird is primarily insect-eating, but is able to live on berries during the winter months. In spring, they can be seen snatching insects out of midair.
Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.
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