What is that yellow bird on my feeder? Is that a Goldfinch, Warbler, a Pine Siskin or something else?
I’ve spoken to many people that see yellow birds on their bird feeders and assume they are either American Goldfinches or someone had a pet parakeet that escaped. While not impossible, it is pretty unlikely a parakeet would show up at your feeders.
Warblers are carnivores and love to eat live insects, spiders, caterpillars, dried mealworms and even suet cakes. The shape of their beak is narrower and longer than that of a finch. In contrast, finches have wider, taller beaks made for cracking open seed shells. Take a look at the photos below of Warblers we’ve seen and you’ll quickly see the difference when you look at finches in the future!
Yellow-rumped Warbler: (shown above) these birds migrate from much further north in Fall, and stay with us each Spring until typically April. When they arrive their feathers have already grown in for Winter warmth and these feathers have much less color and contrast. In February through April though you can witness the transformation with the “breeding plumage”. The photo below shows a male with the majority of his breeding colors in place. This is a huge difference from the Fall/Winter plumage.
Pine Warblers (shown above) are also migratory but we have some year-round here in Marietta, Georgia. They will look a bit more dull in the winter but their colors brighten up dramatically in the males in early Springtime, for breeding / attracting their mates. They are quick, flying in and grabbing a mealworm or two before flying back into brush or tree limbs nearby for cover.
Tennessee Warbler: We didn’t even realize we captured this photo and found out a few weeks later that the “pine warbler” we were photographing from a distance was in fact, a Tennessee Warbler. There are no visible bars of white along the wings or tail, and the subtle yellow color is much smoother and there is even a touch of brown at the corner of the wings/shoulders. The colors of this bird change from the subtle yellow to a warm grey right above the breast up to the eyes. This may be one of two we’ve ever spotted at our feeders to date! We will definitely keep looking for more though!
Ruby-crowned Kinglet: These are tiny birds, relatively close to a Carolina Chickadee or a Pine Siskin. Often in the Winter months they will fly in very quickly and snatch a small chunk of suet or a piece of a mealworm and then retreat to the cover of small shrubs or brush. We managed to capture a few photos of them for you to help you identify these! They are only mildly yellow/brown but we wanted to be sure to include them here in case it helped you!
Pine Siskin: at a glance you might believe you have a bunch of female house finches but at a closer look, they are a bit smaller and they have a splash of yellow on their wings and tails. They usually travel in flocks and we’ve seen 2-3 of them at once only a few times, otherwise there were over 50 birds.
Updated 08/10/2022: flipping through our photo archives we realized that we had a photo of another Yellow bird. This time it is a Scarlet Tanager in it’s Winter or migratory plumage, that stopped by for a snack and sip of water! It is pretty exciting to see all the different bird species that will come to your yard if there is a fresh, clean water source. Thanks again for reading and we hope you’ll follow us and share our page with your bird people 🙂
Updated on 10/9/2024 - We now also have recent photos of another yellow bird: The Summer Tanager! Note the black wings on the Scarlet Tanager (pictured above) and the yellow/brown wings on the Summer Tanager, below!
