All species › Passerines › New World warblers › Prairie Warbler
Prairie Warbler | Setophaga discolor
Prairiezanger | Reinita galana
Despite its name, the Prairie Warbler is a bird of scrub and young woodland in eastern North America. In winter it is one of the commonest North American wood-warblers in the northern Caribbean, where it can be found in almost any patch of scrub and along the coast.
Voice
In winter mainly a soft, fairly low chip. The song, sometimes heard in spring, is a series of buzzy notes rising in steps, zee-zee-zee-zee-zee.
Recording: Mario Reyes Jr — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
11–13 cm, small and lively, with a tail that is constantly bobbed. The upperparts are olive-green; males have chestnut streaks on the mantle, visible at close range. The underparts are yellow, with black streaks along the flanks. The face is yellow, with a dark eye-line and a dark crescent below the eye that joins a short moustachial stripe. Two faint, yellowish wing bars. Females and young birds are duller, with a greyer face and fainter streaks, though the face pattern remains recognisable.
Confusion species
Vitelline Warbler Setophaga vitellina of the Cayman Islands is very similar but has fainter, olive rather than black flank streaks and no chestnut on the back. Pine Warbler Setophaga pinus is larger, with white wing bars, a white belly and little face pattern. Mangrove Warbler Setophaga petechia and American Yellow Warbler Setophaga aestiva lack the dark face pattern and have yellow tail spots. Palm Warbler Setophaga palmarum also pumps its tail but is brownish with a yellow undertail.
Habitat
Coastal scrub, thorn scrub, mangrove edges, open dry woodland and forest edges, rough pasture and gardens. It forages actively and low in the bushes for insects, tail constantly moving, and often joins mixed flocks.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
A common winter visitor to the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Scarce in the northern Lesser Antilles and rare further south. It breeds in the eastern United States; the subspecies paludicola is resident in the mangroves of Florida.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
From September to April in almost any coastal scrub in the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles. The tail-pumping and dark face pattern are good features even on dull birds.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species is widespread, but the North American breeding population has declined considerably since the 1960s through loss of scrub and young woodland.
Scientific name
Setophaga discolor | (Vieillot, 1809)
Vieillot described the species in 1809 as Sylvia discolor; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Setophaga was introduced in 1827 by Swainson. Setophaga is Greek, from sēs, sētos 'moth' and -phagos '-eating': 'moth-eater'. discolor is Latin for 'of different colours', after the varied yellow, black and olive plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Antilles (not specified further).