BLESS THOSE LITTLE "BUTTER-BUTTS"

                                            

Yellow-rumped Warbler

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On the Mississippi Gulf Coast in winter, there is no bird as abundant and widespread as the Yellow-rumped Warbler, Dendroica coronata, yet I am of the opinion that most readers never have seen even one. If they have, it has been bypassed for something a little larger, a little noisier or a little more colorful.

The Yellow-rumped Warbler once was known as the Myrtle Warbler, and in certain birding circles it is known as the “butter-butt”. In winter it is nondescript, but there is no good reason why anyone should not be able to find it and identify it.

The most distinguishing feature of all butter-butts, be they male, female or immature, is the yellow rump patch about the size of a quarter. This patch often is concealed while the bird is at rest, which it seldom is.

Those who are reading this article with a skeptical leer should follow this advice: Open the window, open the back door or the front door. Make sure that the neighbors are beyond earshot. When you are confident that you are alone, begin to make a series of noises known as “pssshing sounds”.

All birders have their own personal psshing techniques. I don’t say that mine is better, but it works for me. I am sitting here at the typewriter about to make some pssshing noises, the exact technique of which I hope to explain as I go.

First, draw in a little air. At the same time, screw up the lower lip as you would if you had just taken a bite out of a sour lemon. You’re looking good! Now place the tip of the tongue tightly up against the forward roof of the mouth, purse your upper lip and begin to expel air by forcing it out of the little opening left in your scrunched-up face. If you are doing this right, you should hear some small noises that sound like escaping steam. You now are the proud possessor of a bona fide “psssh”.

Use it generously – for a minute or two. You should begin to hear a rush of chip notes. These chip notes come from butter-butts who are rushing in to see what all the fuss is about.

Pause a bit between pssshing and watch for movement. Butter-butts are very curious, especially when a human being is making a complete and utter fool of himself.

Before long, if you are doing things right, you could have half a dozen Yellow-rumped Warblers staring at you. Notice that they are different from each other. As a birder of long experience, I believe that no two butter-butts are alike. Don’t let them confuse and bewilder you. Nine out of 10 birds that respond to pssshing are Yellow-rumped Warblers. That 10^th bird could be a chickadee, titmouse, kinglet, wren, cardinal or sparrow.

Notice that some butter-butts have little yellow patches on the sides of their breasts (sometimes in winter the female lacks this field mark). They also have varying degrees of streaking on the breast. They have two whitish wing bars, while tail spots and, at this time of year, have either a brownish or blackish cast to the general plumage.

Before the last butter-butt has left us, it will, if it is a male, develop into a most beautiful bird. Its breast will be rather extensively black, the yellow side patches will brighten and the crown of its head will be bright yellow (sometimes difficult to see) IN ALL plumages it will wear a yellow rump patch.

Before they leave, usually by mid-April, male birds will be singing in the treetops and there’ll be many a merry chase between males and females.

Where does one normally find a butter-butt? Anywhere…. literally. I believe this warbler has an adaptability that is shared by few other birds. Warblers primarily are insectivorous, but the butter-butts of winter live on what is available in seeds and berries when insects are scarce. They will eat suet mixtures, doughnuts, crumbs and sometimes even sunflower seeds.

This catholic taste in food means that the Yellow-rumped Warbler can subsist in almost any habitat here on the Coast, not the least of which is one’s own backyard.

Butter-butts are great flycatchers and do a lot of sallying after insects. They also are gleaners among the leaves. I’ve seen them creeping up tree trunks like the Brown Creeper and moving among pine cones like nuthatches.

They have a strong affinity for the berries of wax myrtles which grow abundantly here. They can make a living nicely in stretches of marsh grass. They may be seen picking around the edges of a paved road. They have been found probing in mudflats, or working the vegetation at water’s edge, dispersed across a farmyard or scrutinizing new lawns.

During their winter stay on the Gulf Coast, Yellow-rumped Warblers display amazing versatility. Learn to recognize them, or better yet, learn the constantly repeated call to identify them at a distance. They are the most abundant bird of our winter… common birds with most uncommon gifts.

This article was published on March 26th, 1983