The Yellow Warbler
Sitting alone in a small dark blind waiting for a bird is a wonderful time to reflect or think deeply about all the wonderful and amazing aspects of nature. This happened a couple days ago when I was sitting in one of my ground blinds that I set up to photograph a tiny and delicate yellow bird, the Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia).
A week before, while taking a walk (exercising), I saw a small yet familiar bird building a nest in a low shrub. I took note of the location and stopped back a couple days later only to find that the nest these warblers had started was gone. No sign of it at all. I assume that a raccoon tore it down or heavy rains stripped it from the branches. Knowing that this is fairly common occurrence I didn’t worry too much and started looking around the area for another nest. It didn’t take long, and I located the new nest location.
It was in a perfect location for photographing. Slightly downhill from an open flat spot where I could set up my photo blind. I quickly set up my blind as to not disturb or upset the pair as they were busy bringing in nesting material. The female does most of the nest building. I could see that most of the nest was complete and therefore knew egg laying would soon take place.
A few days later I stopped back to check on progress and found four tiny eggs in the nest. The female was incubating the eggs. I slipped into my blind and watched as the male would bring food to the female. This kind of behavior is not well known or well documented. Usually, the female would leave the nest and go out to find food for herself. This would also allow her to exercise her wings and defecate away from the nest site. But with this pair, the male was actively feeding the female on the nest.