Sweet sweet sweet I'm so sweet

Photo by BarrytheBirder

MYellow WarblerM

Dendroica petechia

According to my National Geographic Society Field Guide to the Birds of North America, the call of the Yellow Warbler is " sweet sweet sweet I'm so sweet".   That's a bit too cutesy for me.   I'll go with Roger Tory Peterson's description: " weet weet weet weet tsee tsee".   This the yellowest of our warblers and the male, with his red breast stripes, is one of my favourites birds.   The photo above was taken on the shore of Lake Jonda at Seneca College, near King City.   Yellow Warblers are perennial victims of cowbirds, which lay their eggs in Yellow Warbler nests, as well as many, many other bird species.   Here's what my Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds has to say about this nest parasitism: "In temperate North America it (Yellow Warbler) is one of the principal victims of the cowbird, which lays its eggs in the nests of other birds.   The warbler often responds to the unwanted egg by burying it, along with some of its own eggs, under a new nest lining.   Occasionally, a nest is found with up to six layers, each containing one or more cowbird eggs".   

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BtheB