All species › Passerines › New World warblers › Prothonotary Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler | Protonotaria citrea
Citroenzanger | Reinita protonotaria
The Prothonotary Warbler is a golden-yellow warbler of swamp forests which nests in tree cavities; among the wood-warblers only Lucy's Warbler Leiothlypis luciae of western North America does the same. Its name refers to the yellow robes of the protonotaries, papal notaries. In the Caribbean it is mainly a passage migrant on its way to the mangroves of the northern coast of South America.
Voice
The call is a loud, metallic chip, somewhat like that of the waterthrushes. The song is a series of six to ten loud, even, clear notes, tsweet-tsweet-tsweet-tsweet, rarely heard on the wintering grounds.
Recording: Richard E. Webster — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
13–14 cm, fairly stocky, with a long, pointed black bill and a short tail. Head, breast and belly deep golden-yellow, mantle olive-green. Wings and rump blue-grey, without wing bars. The undertail coverts are white and the tail shows much white from below. Females and young birds are duller, with an olive-tinged crown and nape.
Confusion species
Blue-winged Warbler Vermivora cyanoptera has a black eye-stripe, two white wing bars and a finer bill. Mangrove Warbler Setophaga petechia and American Yellow Warbler Setophaga aestiva are yellower on the back and wings, with yellow edges to the wing feathers and yellow tail spots, and have a shorter bill. Female Hooded Warbler Setophaga citrina is also olive-green above, not blue-grey.
Habitat
In the region mainly mangroves and swamp forest, also trees along rivers, lagoons and coastal woodland near water. It forages in the lower levels, often just above the water, for insects, spiders and small snails. On migration also in gardens and coastal scrub.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
A fairly scarce passage migrant in the Bahamas, Cuba, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, and less often on Hispaniola; a few birds overwinter. A scarce winter visitor to mangroves in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Trinidad; rare in the Lesser Antilles, on Tobago and the ABC Islands. Also on San Andrés. Breeds in the eastern United States and winters from southern Mexico to northern South America, especially in the mangroves of Panama, Colombia and Venezuela.
- 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
The best chance is in September and April in Cuba, Grand Cayman or western Jamaica, in mangroves or near water in coastal woodland. In winter in Puerto Rico and Trinidad mainly in large mangrove stands, where the bird forages low over the water.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The breeding population has declined since the 1960s through loss of swamp forest on the breeding grounds and of mangroves in the wintering range.
Scientific name
Protonotaria citrea | (Boddaert, 1783)
Boddaert described the species in 1783 as Motacilla citrea; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Protonotaria was introduced in 1858 by Baird. Protonotaria comes from Late Latin protonotarius 'prothonotary', a senior papal official whose yellow robes recall the plumage. citrea is Latin for 'lemon-yellow', after the bright yellow plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Louisiana (USA).