A Yellow-throated Warbler Collecting Nesting Material

In this short observation recorded on May 19th 2012 you can watch a a yellow-throated warbler (Setophaga dominica) collecting plant fibers for nest construction. This bird constructs cup-shaped nests very high up in the canopy of mature forests. As can be seen in this recording, it particularly developed a search image for collecting fibers of specific quality used in a two-layered nest architecture.

Nest construction in birds is not all instinctive and has a consirable learning component. Urban birds can sometimes use rather unconventional materials in their nests. For instance urban birds in Mexico City use fibers of cigarette butts which contain poisonous compounds in making their nests. These poisonous chemicals keep many arthropod parasites such as ticks away from chicks.

The range of the yellow-throated warbler is southeast of north America.

This observation was made in Panther Creek recreational area in Chattahoochee National Forest and is registered in iNaturalist.

 

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