prothonotary warbler bass lake | Best Life Birding- Birdwatching Tours

My favorite little yellow guys are back, the Prothonotary Warblers!
I was so happy to show this sweet bird to my guests this past weekend at Bass Lake Park in Holly Springs NC.
It was super windy and a bit cold that morning so that’s why this Prothonotary’s feathers are a bit out of sorts. He looked a bit perturbed every time the wind blew as his feathers were ruffled with each gust.

With that bright gold plumage, this species is easily one of the most striking birds you’ll find in the woods.
Prothonotary Warblers are named for the bright yellow robes worn by papal clerks, known as prothonotaries, in the Roman Catholic church.
The males sport bright-yellow heads and breast, greenish-yellow back, and bluish wings. The underside of the tail is mostly white, extending onto the undertail coverts.
When spread, the bluish upperside of their tail feathers shows large white spots.
Females look very similar to the males but are dressed in overall slightly muted green tones showing in their lovely yellow plumage.
Even though this handsome male had a few feathers out of place, I think he still looked amazing!

The Prothonotary Warbler will stick around N.C. from now until August so we’ve got plenty of time left to enjoy them this year.
I’m actually headed back out to Bass Lake Park later today on another birding trip and am hoping to have another crack at photographing this gorgeous feathered gem.
Wish me luck! 🙂

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on the full frame beast of an SLR, the mighty @canonusa
#5Ds

Stoked to find this handsome male Prothonotary Warbler about 3 weeks ago at Bass Lake Park in Holly Springs, NC.!
I’ve been watching him since early April and it never gets old seeing his cheerful yellow face belting out a tune from within the maple leaves.
I recently came across fascinating study of the Prothonotary Warbler which found that nearly the entire species winters in a single small area in South America.
Not long ago, Biologists from the O.S.U. captured around 150 Prothonotary Warblers during their breeding season here in the southeastern U.S. and attached geolocators to the birds.
These tiny electronic devices use the timing of dawn and dusk to estimate birds’ locations once the biologists set them free.
When the warblers returned to their nesting sites the following season, the researchers were able to recover 34 devices that contained enough info for them to use for their study.
The data showed that regardless of where they bred, nearly ALL of the warblers spent their winter in a relatively small concentrated area of northern Colombia.

To give you an idea of just how amazing this is, the trip from Raleigh to northern Colombia is about 2000 miles!
That is one incredible journey for a bird that weighs about 4oz.
The fact that most of them end up spending the winter in one tiny area of the world is absolutely mind boggling!

Photo by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc
Canon 5Ds