This warbler is an indefatigable songster. From early March through May (about Charleston) it sings almost incessantly, practically from dawn to dusk. Often only seconds intervene between the renditions. As June approaches, the frequency of its singing drops sharply, and by the middle of that month only a very occasional song is heard.
Enemies.—The yellow-throated warbler is open to the various dangers which beset any of the smaller passerine species, but I know of no single enemy that operates against it particularly. However, it occasionally falls into a somewhat novel trap, becoming entangled in tough spider-webs. In much of the cypress country of the southeast the large Carolina silk spider makes its home and spins a magnificent golden web high up amid the straight-trunked columns of the trees. Some of these webs may stretch for many yards and on two occasions I have seen this warbler caught therein. In one instance it was the convulsive fluttering of the bird, apparently stationary in midair, which attracted attention and after some moments of violent activity, it succeeded in breaking the strands which held it. In the other, a dead specimen was found inextricably entangled. Although two experiences such as this are by no means conclusive of any marked mortality, it at least indicates that this may occur more often than one would realize.
Field marks.—The brilliant yellow throat is always diagnostic and is usually readily seen because of the bird’s tameness and deliberate actions. The grayness of the plumage is also apparent. A brief glimpse is enough to establish its identity, even if the characteristic song is unfamiliar.
Fall.—The yellow-throated warbler leaves the northern portions of its range rather early. A very late specimen in the northern perimeter of the range was found dead by J. K. Potter (MS.) at Collingswood, N.J., on November 2, 1943. According to H. H. Bailey (1913) departure dates for southeastern Virginia are in the “latter part of July.” May T. Cooke (1929) gives the latest occurrence about Washington as September 11, 1927. Near Lynchburg, R. H. Freer (MS.) has seen it once on September 30. These are all considerably later than Bailey’s late July, and though very late, dates indicate that the species may remain in Viriginia well into August. C. W. Richmond and J. D. Figgins secured specimens on July 28, 1889, at Four Mile Run (near Washington), these being noted by William Rives (1890) in his catalog of Virginia birds.
Late September sees the last migrants leaving central and western North Carolina; the twenty-fifth of that month in the Raleigh area and the twenty-eighth in the Asheville region (Pearson and the Brimleys, 1942). In the coastal area the average is probably a little later.
From South Carolina southward, as already noted, the species is a permanent resident though the scattered wintering individuals are quite probably birds that nested in the northern portion of the range. About Charleston birds can be seen through July and August, but being quiet are not nearly so noticeable, and their numbers fall off in September and October. The young appear to leave much earlier, indeed, shortly after the cessation of the song period in mid-June, though doubtless early July sees some of them still here.
In Florida I have not seen this warbler south of the Lake Okeechobee-Kissimmee Prairie region in winter but occasional individuals are seen there throughout January and February in the “hammocks” and they begin to sing in early March. In the western part of the state F. M. Weston writes from Pensacola that the “fall migration is hardly noticeable in this region, for the birds have been silent and inconspicuous since June, and the migratory movement consists merely of a quiet withdrawal from the area.” Of its winter status in that area he follows with the statement that the “yellow-throated warbler winters regularly in small numbers, at which season it is confined to the live oak groves. In order to find it, an observer must scan carefully every chickadee-titmouse group found in suitable situations. The composition of such a group would be half-a-dozen each of the tufted titmouse, Florida chickadee, myrtle warbler and ruby-crowned kinglet, a blue-gray gnatcatcher, a blue-headed vireo, an orange-crowned warbler and one or two yellow-throated warblers.”
Alexander Wilson (1832) in speaking of the first specimen of this warbler he ever saw (in Georgia) stated that it was late in February and was the first spring appearance of the species in that area, following this at once with the explanation that "they leave the U. S. about three months during winter and, consequently, go to no great distance.” He was in one of his few errors here for the warbler is, as we have abundantly seen, present in southeastern United States through the whole of the winter.
DISTRIBUTION
Range.—Southeastern United States to Panamá and the West Indies.