A few birds from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
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Yellow-rumped Warbler:Yellow-rumped Warbler Ussukasscengiiraq (?) Birders don't call this little guy "butter butt" for nothing. The bright patches of butter yellow under its wings, on its topknot and especially on its rump earn it both its common name and its nickname. Although it is Alaska's most numerous wood warbler, it only nests in the wooded areas of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. I saw it often when I taught in the lower Yukon village of Marshall between 1990-2000. The scientific name for this handsome warbler is Dendroica coronata, meaning, "crowned tree dweller," but in those ten years in Marshall, I never came up with more than the Yupik name, Ussukaascengiiraq, which translates loosely as "one having a little nail-like beak." This also happens to be the name I found for Townsend's warbler, so if anyone has the final answer I would appreciate knowing. In any case, my dad's favorite moniker for this little bird was Myrtle warbler. It was given this name because of its fondness for berries of the eastern wax myrtle and other northern berries, including cranberries, bunchberries and blueberries. I still refer to it by this name. Myrtles are actually unique among warblers in their ability to eat berries. Where most other warblers are strictly insect eaters, Myrtles are more flexible in their diet since they can digest the wax coatings on berries. This allows them to stay later in the fall and arrive earlier in spring than their Alaskan cousins. When the Myrtles do arrive here, they come in waves, the males in the vanguard, drifting through the treetops of spruce and still leafless aspens, birch and poplar. If you listen closely, you might hear the males singing their weak juncolike trill as they move through the area. After a male sets up his home territory and the females begin to arrive, he changes his tune and sings a high-pitched, sidl sidl sidl sidl sidl seedl seedl seedl seedl, trying to attract an eligible female to be his mate. When a female enters his claimed nesting ground, he follows her everywhere, fluffing up his side feathers, raising his wings and colorful crown feathers, fluttering and calling sweetly. This usually does the trick, and soon afterward mom builds their nest high on a horizontal limb of a spruce or deciduous tree. She shapes it in the form of an open cup using bark, twigs and wildflowers, then lines it with hair and feathers in such a way as to curve over and partially cover the top of the nest. Since Myrtles are early nesters in the north, they must protect their eggs as much as possible from the elements. Four or five creamy white, brown-splotched eggs are laid, then incubated mostly by the mother bird, although dad may sometimes help out. In 12-13 days the young peck their way out of the eggs, and both parents then begin to feed them in earnest. They are nestlings for only another 10-12 days, at which time they leave the nest. Two or three days later they are able to fly short distances and follow dad around to be fed while mom begins brooding a second clutch of eggs. In winter I have seen these migrant warblers in Mexico and Central America where they are known as "chipes" (after their winter call) and "reinitas" ("little queens"). They also have other common English names: Golden-crowned flycatcher, Golden-crowned warbler, Myrtle-bird, and Yellow-rump. Since they can live for about six years, the male birds you feast your eyes on in your backyard may be the same ones for at least that long. Happy birding.  |
