The Story
This female Northern Yellow Warbler (Setophaga aestiva) perched on a diagonal branch near Sapzurro Bay, just outside Capurganá in Chocó, Colombia, her soft yellow plumage tinged with olive on the wings. Females, winter birds and immatures are greenish yellow above and duller yellow below. This migratory species breeds across most of North America, and some populations winter as far south as northern South America. It was formerly treated as the same species as the resident Mangrove Warbler.
I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/125 sec, f/16, ISO 3200. IUCN lists it as Least Concern, and caterpillars make up about 60 percent of its diet, which ties it to healthy trees wherever it spends the year.
©2025 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Northern Yellow Warbler (Setophaga aestiva) belongs to the family Parulidae (New World Warblers) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2021), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List