Yellow Warbler
(Setophaga petechia)

Overview

Summary

© Jukka Jantunen (flickr.com/photos/jukka_jantunen)
For additional photos and vocalizations, visit Dendroica. (Link opens in a new window.)

The Yellow Warbler breeds in willow and shrubby thickets and woods especially in riparian areas, with an extensive range that reaches across Canada from Newfoundland and Labrador to the Yukon Territory and the west coast. The Breeding Bird Survey indicates the national population has decreased since the early 1970s. Changes in riparian habitat as a result of climate change are a potential concern for the Yellow Warbler (Giermakowski et al. 2016). This species has been identified as a priority for conservation and/or stewardship in one or more Bird Conservation Region Strategies in Canada.

Designations

Population status

Population estimate

Distribution maps

• BirdLife International / NatureServe
• North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS): Relative Abundance and Breeding Distribution (1970-2016)

Migration strategy, occurrence

Responsibility for conservation

General nesting period in Canada

Conservation and management

The Yellow Warbler is commonly found in early successional riparian areas dominated by willow species (Lowther et al. 1999). Despite the apparent decrease in population, there are currently few conservation concerns in Canada for this widespread and still very abundant species. However, climate change may be a concern in the future; climate models have predicted a change in water availability and riparian areas within the next 100 years, resulting in changes to riparian habitats and permanent water (Giermakowski et al. 2016).

Bird conservation region strategies

Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:

• conservation concerns (i.e., species vulnerable due to population size, distribution, population trend, abundance, or threats)
• stewardship responsibilities (i.e., species that typify the regional avifauna or have a large proportion of their range or population in the sub-region)
• management concerns (i.e., species that require ongoing management because of their socio-economic importance as game species, or because of their impacts on other species or habitats)
• other concerns (i.e., species deemed a priority by regional experts for other reasons than those listed above or because they are listed as species at risk or concern at the provincial level)

Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.

References

• Giermakowski, J.T., J.R. Hatten,M.J. Johnson, J.A. Holmes, and E.M. Nowak. 2016. Effects of changing climate and water availability on four riparian species in the Southwestern United States. World Conference on Natural Resource Modeling. 7. Giermakowski, J.T., J.R. Hatten,M.J. Johnson, J.A. Holmes, and E.M. Nowak. 2016. Effects of changing climate and water availability on four riparian species in the Southwestern United States. World Conference on Natural Resource Modeling. 7. (Link)
• Lowther, P.E., C. Celada, N.K. Klein, C.C. Rimmer and D.A. Spector. 1999. Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Lowther, P.E., C. Celada, N.K. Klein, C.C. Rimmer and D.A. Spector. 1999. Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. (Link)