345 Records

Yellow-throated Warblers breed in southeastern North America and migrate south in the winter. They are one of the earliest warblers to arrive back in Maryland in the spring. These striking warblers occupy two very distinct habitats in the state, and are generally treated as two subspecies. The white-lored, shorter-billed birds that nest along the C&O Canal are American Sycamore specialists, while the yellow-lored, longer-billed birds on the coastal plain are Loblolly Pine specialists. Yellow-throated Warblers feed mainly along the trunks of trees. Arriving before deciduous trees have leafed out, the white-lored, shorter-billed subspecies finds food, mainly insects and spiders, deep in the crevices and beneath the loose shingles that form in sycamore trees. The Loblolly Pine specialists glean insects and spiders from the bark of this evergreen conifer. (Many other warbler species do not return to Maryland until deciduous trees have leafed out and are attracting the leaf-eating insects that these warblers depend on for food.)

In American Sycamore trees along the C&O Canal and in Loblolly Pine trees on the Coastal Plain.

Depending on the subspecies, Yellow-throated Warblers find food mainly on either American Sycamore or Loblolly Pine.