Birding in Florida is always interesting, but this time of year it’s especially fascinating since many new species are coming through on their southern migrations. Some will pass through and head further south, but many will stay for the winter. Among those that will stay are a number of warblers including these yellow rumped warblers (Setophaga coronata).

I struggle to tell a lot of the winter warblers, especially the females, apart from each other. But the yellow rumped warblers are pretty easy to spot since both sexes sport a bright yellow patch of feathers on their rumps. That is pretty much a dead giveaway. Of course, that does require being able to see the rump, but I find that if I watch for a bit, I usually get to see most of the bird. And like most of these migratory warblers, they usually travel in small flocks, so if I can’t tell with one, I can usually see that yellow spot on one of the others nearby.

We are currently in the midst of our first really chilly weather for this winter and these little ones have been coming through in some fairly big groups for the past couple of days. I’m not a great fan of cool weather (I live in Florida for a reason), but I do really enjoy the new varieties of bird life that it brings in.