“Yellow warblers may sing in Central America in the spring as well as the fall. Last year, the male yellow warbler that wintered about my house in Costa Rica sang briefly in the early morning from April 12 to 24. After April 28, I saw no more of his kind in the vicinity.
“From November 1936 until February of the following year, a yellow warbler slept every night in a bush of Hibiscus mutabilis beside my cabin in Rivas, Costa Rica. He rested upon one of the long leaf-stalks, where the broad blades of the higher leaves formed a roof above him, but he was exposed on the sides and easily visible from the ground. He always slept alone.
“Early dates of fall arrival in Central America are: Guatemala—passim (Griscom), August 9; Sierra de Tecpán, 8,500 feet, September 4, 1933; Huehuetenango, 6,500 feet, September 11, 1934. Honduras—Tela, August 14, 1930. Costa Rica—Puerto Limón, August 17, 1935; San José (Cherrie), August 24; Cartago, September 6, 1938; Basin of El General, 2,000-3,000 feet, September 13, 1936 and September 11, 1942. Panamá—Canal Zone (Arbib and Loetscher), August 22, 1934.
“Late dates of spring departure are: [British Guiana (Beebe), April 10.] Panamá—Barro Colorado Island, April 23, 1935; Almirante, April 29, 1929. Costa Rica—Basin of El General, April 30, 1936, April 29, 1937, May 7, 1939, May 3, 1940, April 28, 1942; San José (Cherrie), May 11. Honduras—Tela, May 9, 1930. Guatemala—passim (Griscom), May 6; Los Amates, Motagua Valley, May 11, 1932.”
Todd and Carriker (1922), reporting for the Santa Marta region of Colombia, say that the eastern yellow warbler is “a common winter resident throughout the whole of the lowlands and lower foothills, but rare above the coastal plain. It frequents shrubbery, open ground with scattering bushes, the low growth along the banks of streams and the sea-beach, etc.—the same kind of covert in general to which it is so partial in the breeding season.”
DISTRIBUTION
Range.—North America, northern South America and the West Indies.
Breeding range.—The yellow warblers of North America breed north to north-central Alaska (Kobuk River and Fort Yukon); northern Yukon (Potato Creek, 20 miles above Old Crow River); northwestern Mackenzie (Richard Island, Fort Anderson, Lake St. Croix, and Oot-sing-gree-ay-Island, Great Slave Lake); northern Manitoba (Lac Du Brochet, Churchill, York Factory, and Severn House); and central Quebec and Labrador (Richmond Gulf, Grand Falls of the Hamilton River, probably Northwest River, and Cartwright). East to eastern Labrador (Cartwright); Newfoundland (St. Anthony, Twillingate, and St. John’s); Nova Scotia (Cape Breton Island, Halifax, and Yarmouth); and the Atlantic coastal region south to eastern and central North Carolina (Pine Island, Lake Mattamuskeet, Raleigh, and Charlotte); central South Carolina (Columbia); and central Georgia (Augusta and Macon). South to central Georgia (Macon); central Alabama, rarely (Autaugaville); southern Arkansas (Monticello and Arkadelphia); northeastern Texas (Paris, Commerce, and Dallas); west-central Oklahoma (Fort Reno and Thomas); southern New Mexico (Roswell and Silver City); probably southwestern Texas (Fort Hancock and El Paso); northern Sonora (Moctezuma, Magdalena, and Colonia Indepencia); and northwestern Baja California (El Rosario). West to the Pacific coast from northern Baja California (El Rosario) to western Alaska (Frosty Peak, Alaska Peninsula; Nushagak, Hooper Bay, Saint Michael, and Kobuk River). Wandering birds have been collected at Icy Cape and Wainwright on the northwest coast of Alaska several hundred miles north of the northernmost breeding record.
Winter range.—The yellow warbler is found in winter north to southern Baja California (La Paz); Jalisco (La Barca); Morelos (Cuernavaca and Yautepec); southern Veracruz (Tlacotalpan); Yucatán (Tunkás); and Quintana Roo (Akumal); occasional or accidental in winter near Brownsville, Tex. East to Quintana Roo (Akumal); Honduras (Tela and Ceiba); Nicaragua (Bluefields); Panamá (Almirante and the Canal Zone); Venezuela (Trinidad Island); British Guiana (Georgetown and the Berbice River); Surinam (Paramaribo); Cayenne (Cayenne and Approuague); and northeastern Brazil (Chaves). South to northern Brazil (Chaves, and Bôa Vista on the Rio Branco) and central Perú (La Merced). West to central western Perú (La Merced); western Ecuador (Guayaquil, Chones, and Esmeraldas); western Colombia (Condoto, Medellín, and Turbo); western Costa Rica (El General, San José, and Bolson); El Salvador (Puerto del Triunfo); western Guatemala (San José and Matzantinango); Chiapas (Huehuetán); Guerrero (Coyuca); Colima (Manzanillo); and southern Baja California (La Paz).
The range as outlined is divided into several subspecies or geographic races. The Newfoundland warbler (D. p. amnicola) breeds from central western Alaska south to central British Columbia, central Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, central Ontario and Quebec northward and east to Newfoundland; the Alaska yellow warbler (D. p. rubiginosa) breeds in the coastal region of southern Alaska; the Rocky Mountain yellow warbler (D. p. morcomi) breeds from southern British Columbia and Washington east through the Rocky Mountains south to northern Nevada, northern Utah and northern New Mexico; the California yellow warbler (D. p. brewsteri) breeds west of the Sierras in Oregon and California; the Sonora yellow warbler (D. p. sonorana) breeds from southeastern California, southern Nevada, and southern New Mexico to northwestern Mexico and western Texas; the eastern yellow warbler (D. p. aestiva) breeds from southern Canada east of the Rocky Mountains southward. The Cuban golden warbler (D. p. gundlachi) which is resident in Cuba, the Isle of Pines, and adjacent Cays has been found nesting on Bay Key, Fla. The mangrove, or “golden,” yellow warbler (D. p. castaneiceps) breeds on both coasts of Baja California from about latitude 27° 14´ N. (San Lucas) southward; and on the west coast of Mexico from southern Sonora (Guaymas) south to Nayarit (San Blas). (Apparently it is only slightly migratory, if at all.)