Yellow warbler
Dendroica petechia
 
ITIS Species Code:   178878         NatureServ Element Code:   ABPBX03010
 
Taxa: 
Order: 
Family: 
Aves
Passeriformes
Parulidae
NatureServe Global Rank: 
NatureServe State (NC) Rank: 
 
G5
S4B,SZN
 
Federal Status: 
NC State Status: 
 
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PARTNERS IN FLIGHT PRIORITY SCORES:
Southern Blue Ridge:  16 Southern Piedmont:  16 South Atl. Coastal Plain:  14
 
HEXAGONAL KNOWN RANGE:PREDICTED DISTRIBUTION:
 
SUMMARY OF STATEWIDE PREDICTED DISTRIBUTION:
 
Land Unit
US Fish & Wildlife Service
US Forest Service
US National Park Service
US Department of Defense
NC State Parks
NC University System
NC Wildlife Res. Com.
NC Forest Service
NC Div. of Coastal Mgmt.
Local Governments
Non-Governmental Org.
Other Public Lands
Private Lands
GAP Status 1-2
All Protected Lands
Statewide
 
Hectares
2,761.20
5,517.00
2,038.95
2,029.50
681.84
106.20
2,131.92
87.24
349.83
423.99
599.31
339.39
536,310.45
7,203.90
15,731.40
553,376.82
 
Acres
6,823.07
13,632.80
5,038.35
5,015.00
1,684.86
262.43
5,268.09
266.87
864.45
1,047.70
1,480.93
838.65
1,325,251.73
17,852.52
38,924.43
1,367,474.93
% of Dist. on
Prot. Lands
17.6 %
35.1 %
5.1 %
12.9 %
4.3 %
0.7 %
13.2 %
0.6 %
2.2 %
3.7 %
3.7 %
2.0 %
< 0.1 %
45.8 %
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% of Dist. on
All Lands
0.5 %
1.0 %
0.4 %
0.4 %
0.1 %
< 0.1 %
0.4 %
< 0.1 %
< 0.1 %
< 0.1 %
0.1 %
< 0.1 %
96.9 %
1.3 %
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HABITAT DESCRIPTION:
From mountains east to western piedmont (Pearson 1959, Potter et al. 1980, Price et al. 1995). Also breeds on barrier islands from Cape Hatteras north (Fussell 1994). Usually absent from suitable habitat, including balds, at high altitudes (Nicholson 1997) except for local breeders in Cataloochee (Stupka 1963) and on Roan Mountain (Eller and Wallace 1984).

The Yellow Warbler has been described as a habitat generalist, frequently found in wet second-growth woodlands, scrub (Ehrlich et al. 1988), deciduous thickets, willow stands, and medium to mature deciduous forests bordering streams or lakes (Simpson 1992, Nicholson 1997). It can just as often be found nesting in orchards, shade trees, upland groves (Pearson 1959), and yards and gardens of towns and cities, often close to human habitation (Griscom and Sprunt 1957). Abundance in areas of Tennessee has been linked to the presence of numerous permanent streams bordered by small farms with shrubby field borders and abandoned fields in predominantly forested areas (Nicholson 1997).

The nest is generally located from 2-12 feet (although it can be as high as 40 feet) from the ground, in the crotch of a small tree, sapling, or shrub (Ehrlich et al. 1988, Hamel 1992). In urban areas it may nest in ornamental shrubbery or fruit trees (Griscom and Sprunt 1957, Pearson 1959).

NATURE SERVE GLOBAL HABITAT COMMENTS:

Open scrub, second-growth woodland, thickets, farmlands and gardens, especially near water; riparian woodlands, especially of willows, in the West. In migration and winter occurs also in open woodland, plantations, brushy areas, forest edge. Winter habitat in Mexico generally has a clear open understory (Greenberg and Salgado Ortiz 1994). Southern populations occupy mangroves, scrub, and thickets.

Nests in upright fork or crotch of bush (e.g., willow), sapling, or large tree, from less than a meter above ground to high in tall trees.

See Knopf and Sedgwick (1992) for information on nest-site selection in north-central Colorado, where sites were chosen based primarily on characteristics of the vegetation patch rather than on characteristics of the nest plant itself.

 
MODELING DESCRIPTION:
Occupied Landcover Map Units:
Code NameDescription NC Natural Heritage Program Equivalent
124 Maritime Scrubs and Tidal Shrublands Coastal shrubs including wax-myrtle, swamp rose, alder, yaupon, and greenbriar. Maritime Shrubs, Salt Shrub
75 Tidal Swamp Forest Swamp tupelo dominated forest with or without black tupelo and/or cypress trees. Restricted to the tidal zones in the coastal plain. May have inclusions of coastal red cedar woodlands. Tidal cypress - gum swamp
17 Maritime Forests and Hammocks Maritime forests and woodlands dominated by live or sand laurel oak. Estuarine Fringe forests dominated by loblolly pine. Coastal Fringe Evergreen Forest, Maritime Deciduous Forest, Maritime Deciduous Forest
126 Interdune Wooded Depression Swamp Includes swamps dominated by sweetbay and swampbay or dogwood dominated forests. Maritime Shrub Swamp, Maritime Swamp Forest
173 Coastal Plain Riverbank Shrubs Shrub dominated riverbanks, commonly dominated by willows and/or alders. Sand and Mud Bar
50 Coastal Plain Mixed Bottomland Forests Includes forests dominated by a variety of hardwood species, including sweetgum, cottonwood, red maple. Coastal Plain Bottomland Hardwood (in part), Coastal Plain Levee Forest
49 Coastal Plain Oak Bottomland Forest Bottomland forests dominated by deciduous oak alliances. Oaks represented can include swamp chestnut, cherrybark, willow, and/or overcup oak. Inclusions of loblolly pine temporarily flooded forests occur in patches. Hydrology is temporarily to seasonally flooded. Coastal Plain Bottomland Hardwoods (in part) blackwater subtype, brownwater subtype
158 Coastal Plain Nonriverine Wet Flat Forests Loblolly pine - Atlantic white-cedar - red maple - swamp tupelo saturated forests as well as forests dominated by loblolly, sweetgum, and red maple in non-riverine flats. Non-riverine Wet Hardwood Forest
15 Seepage and Streamhead Swamps Includes extensive peat flats in the coastal plain, dominated by swamp tupelo, maples, and Atlantic white cedar alliances. In the sandhills includes streamhead pond pine and bay forests alliances. Saturated hydrology. Bay Forest, Small Depression Pocosin, Streamhead Atlantic White Cedar Forest, Streamhead Pocosins
30 Cypress-Gum Floodplain Forests Swamps dominated by black or swamp tupelo with or without Taxodium. Seasonally to semi-permanently flooded hydrology. Cypress-Gum Swamps
78 Pond-Cypress - Gum Swamps, Savannas and Lakeshores Cypress dominated swamps and lakeshores. Can include bays dominated by pond cypress or shorelines of coastal plain lakes with a narrow band of cypress. Non-riverine Swamp Forest, Natural Lakeshores (in part)
385 Oak Bottomland Forest and Swamp Forest The swamp chestnut oak, cherrybark oak, shumard oak and sweetgum alliance is one representative. Other alliances are dominated by water, willow, and overcup oaks. Swamp forests can be dominated by sweetgum, red maple, and black gum being dominant. Loblolly can occur in combination with sweetgum and red maple, or with tulip poplar. Includes saturated and semi- to permanently flooded forests in the mountains. Piedmont/Mountain Bottomland Forest, Piedmont/Mountain Swamp Forest
63 Coastal Plain Mesic Hardwood Forests Beech dominated forests with white oak and northern red oak as possible co-dominants. Dry-mesic to mesic forests on slopes and small stream bottoms in the coastal plain. Mesic Mixed Hardwood Forest, Basic Mesic Forests
267 Riverbank Shrublands Riverside shrubs with temporarily flooded hydrologies. Found in the both the Mountains and Piedmont. Containing dominants such as smooth alder and a Carolina or black willows. Sand and Mud Bar
269 Floodplain Wet Shrublands Saturated shrublands of the Piedmont, includes buttonbush, swamp-loosestrife, decodon and alders. Piedmont/mountain Semipermanent Impoundment
230 Piedmont Mesic Forest American Beech - Red Oak - White Oak Forests. Mesic Mixed Hardwood
384 Piedmont/Mountain Mixed Bottomland Hardwood Forests Includes temporarily to seasonally forests dominated by hardwood species. Hardwoods include sweetgum, red maple, sycamore which co-occur in a mosaic of bottomland and levee positions. Includes alluvial hardwood forests in the mountains. Hemlock and white pine may occur as inclusions, but are generally mapped separately. Piedmont/Mountain Alluvial Forest, Piedmont/Mountain Levee Forest
383 Piedmont Mixed Successional Forest Generally loblolly mixed with successional hardwoods. Sweetgum, tulip poplar and red maple are common co-dominants in these successional forests. No equivalent
51 Deciduous Cultivated Plantation Planted deciduous trees. Includes sweetgum and sycamore plantations. No equivalent
36 Successional Deciduous Forests Regenerating deciduous trees with a shrub stature. Commonly dominated by sweetgum, tulip poplars and maples. No equivalent
202 Residential Urban Includes vegetation interspersed in residential areas. Includes lawns, mixed species woodlots, and horticultural shrubs. Vegetation accounts for between 20 - 70% of the cover. No equivalent
517 Hemlock Floodplain Forest Alluvial forest with hemlock and/or white pine in mountains and western piedmont. Hydrology is generally temporarily to seasonally flooded. Canada Hemlock Forest
522 Northern Hardwoods High Elevation forests including yellow birch, American beech, and yellow buckeye. Includes forests with Hemlock and Yellow Birch. Northern Hardwoods Forest, Boulderfield Forest
523 Grassy Bald High Elevation grassy balds including Pennsylvania sedge, mountain oatgrass, as well as shrubby areas dominated by Alleghany and smooth blackberry. Grassy Bald
524 Shrub Bald Variable phenologies, predominantly evergreen balds with rhododendon and Mountain laurels. Deciduous shrubs including green alder and Alleghany and smooth blackberry are included as well. Red Oak - Chestnut Oak Woodlands may be included in cases where the density of the woodland species is low and the shrub component is dense. Heath Bald
525 Appalachian Oak Forest A variety of oak forest types including Black, White, Scarlet Oaks in dry to mesic situations. Includes forests historically co-dominated by American Chestnut. High Elevation Red Oak Forest, Montane White Oak Forest
526 Appalachian Cove Forest Mixed Mesophytic forests of the mountains. Includes tuliptree, basswood, yellow buckeye and surgar maple. This class is mapped to include cove forests dominated or co-dominated by hemlock. Rich Cove Forest, Acidic Cove Forest
527 Appalachian Hemlock Upland hemlock forests of the moutains region. Vary from side slopes to steep slope positions. Canada Hemlock Forest
533 Appalachian Swamp Forest Evergreen and deciduous forests with saturated hydrologies. This class may contain a variety of trees species, including hemlock - red maple, pitch pine, and white pine forests. Swamp Forest-Bog Complex, Southern Appalachian Bog, Southern Appalachian Fen
534 Appalachian Wet Shrubland/ Herbaceous Saturated shrubs and herbaceous vegetation. Often mapped as an inclusion in Appalachian Swamp Forest. Southern Appalachian Bog, Southern Appalachian Fen
View Entire Landcover Legend
 
Additional Spatial Constraints:
Exclude all area outside of known range.
Exclude all land greater than 200 meters from an open water feature.
Limited to elevation range: less than 5000 ft.
Limited to edge habitats including forest/field borders, shrublands and woodlands.
 
CITATIONS:
Pashley, D.N. 1988. Warblers of the West Indies. I. The Virgin Islands. Caribbean J. Sci. 24:11-22.

Pashley, D.N. 1988. Warblers of the West Indies. II. The Western Caribbean. Caribbean J. Sci. 24:112-126.

Pashley, D.N., and R.B. Hamilton. 1990. Warblers of the West Indies. III. The Lesser Antilles. Caribbean J. Sci. 26:75-97.

Klein, N. K., and W. M. Brown. 1996. Intraspecific molecular phylogeny in the yellow warbler (DENDROICA PETECHIA), and implications for avian biogeography in the West Indies. Evolution 48:1914-1932.

Bent, A.C. 1953. Life histories of North American wood warblers. U.S. Natl. Mus. Bull. 203. Washington, D.C.

Griscom, L and A. Sprunt Jr. 1957. The warblers of America. New York: Devin-Adair Company. 356 p.

Ehrlich, P.R., D.S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. 1992. Birds in jeopardy:the imperiled and extinct birds of the United States and Canada, including Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. 259 pp.

Hagan, J.M., III, and D.W. Johnston, editors. 1992. Ecology and conservation of neotropical migrant landbirds. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. xiii + 609 pp.

Hamel, P. B. 1992. The land manager's guide to the birds of the south. The Nature Conservancy, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 367 pp + several appendices.

Simpson MB Jr. 1992. Birds of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press.

Eller, G. and G. Wallace. 1984. Birds of Roan Mountain and vicinity. Lee Herndon Chapter, Tennessee Ornithological Society, Elizabethton.

Knopf, F. L., and J. A. Sedgwick. 1992. An experimental study of nest-site selection by yellow warblers. Condor 94:734-742.

Greenberg, R., and J. Salgado Ortiz. 1994. Interspecific defense of pasture trees by wintering yellow warblers. Auk 111:672-682.

Sauer, J.R., and S. Droege. 1992. Geographical patterns in population trends of neotropical migrants in North America. Pages 26-42 in J.M. Hagan III and D.W. Johnston, editors. Ecology and conservation of neotropical migrant landbirds. Smithsonian Institu

Prather, J. W., and A. Cruz. 1995. Breeding biology of Florida prairie and Cuban yellow warblers. The Wilson Bulletin 107:474-84.

Fussell, J.O. III. 1994. A birder’s guide to coastal North Carolina. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press.

Price, J., S. Droege, and A. Price. 1995. The summer atlas of North American birds. Academic Press, New York. x + 364 pp.

Nicholson CP. 1997. Atlas of the breeding birds of Tennessee. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.

Stupka A 1963. Notes on the birds of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press.

Browning, M. R. 1994. A taxonomic review of DENDROICA PETECHIA (yellow warbler) (Aves:Parulinae). Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 107:27-51.

Weatherhead, P. J. 1989. Sex ratios, host-specific reproductive success, and impact of brown-headed cowbirds. Auk 106:358-366.

Pearson, T.G. 1959. Birds of North Carolina. Raleigh, NC: Bynum Printing Company.

Lack, D. 1976. Island biology illustrated by the land birds of Jamaica. Studies in Ecology, Vol. 3. Univ. California Press, Berkeley. 445 pp.

Harrison, C. 1978. A field guide to the nests, eggs and nestlings of North American birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.

Griscom, L., and A. Sprunt, Jr. 1979. The warblers of America. Doubleday and Co., Garden City, New York. 302 pp.

Harrison, H.H. 1979. A field guide to western birds' nests. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 279 pp.

Potter, E. F., J. F. Parnell, and R. P. Teulings. 1980. Birds of the Carolinas. Univ. North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill. 408 pp.

Terres, J.K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

American Ornithologists' Union (AOU), Committee on Classification and Nomenclature. 1983. Check-list of North American Birds. Sixth Edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas.

Raffaele, H.A. 1983. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Fondo Educativo Interamericano, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 255 pp.

Harrison, H.H. 1984. Wood warblers' world. Simon and Schuster, New York. 335 pp.

Ehrlich, P.R., D.S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. 1988. The birder's handbook:a field guide to the natural history of North American birds. Simon and Shuster, Inc., New York. xxx + 785 pp.

Ridgely, R.S., and G. Tudor. 1989. The birds of South America. Vol. 1. The Oscine passerines. Univ. Texas Press, Austin. 516 pp.

Stiles, F.G., and A.F. Skutch. 1989. A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Comstock Publ. Associates, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York. 511 pp.

Wiedenfeld, D. A. 1991. Geographical morphology of male yellow warblers. Condor 93:712-723.
10 March 2005
 
This data was compiled and/or developed by the North Carolina GAP Analysis Project.

For more information please contact them at:
NC-GAP Analysis Project
Dept. of Zoology, NCSU
Campus Box 7617
Raleigh, NC 27695-7617
(919) 513-2853
www.basic.ncsu.edu/ncgap