Setophaga petechia
Order Passeriformes
Family Parulidae
Other names: Summer Yellowbird
♂ Adult male.– Entire bird yellow or yellowish; the crown in good light bright yellow; the upper parts greenish-yellow; wings and tail brownish; the breast streaked with reddish-brown.
♀ Adult female.– Like the male, but crown not brighter than the back, breast not streaked with reddish-brown.
Nest, a neat gray cup in the fork of a bush or low tree.
Eggs, bluish-white or greenish-white, spotted with brown, generally in a wreath around the larger end.
The Yellow Warbler is a summer resident of New York and New England, arriving late in April or early in May, and leaving about the middle of August; a few migrants from the north are seen in September. It is common in central and southern New England and in the lower Hudson Valley, and frequents orchards and gardens, even in large cities; in the hilly country of western Massachusetts and in northern New England it is much less common, and is generally confined to the valleys of the large streams and their tributaries. It is active, and a constant singer, uttering its bright song from the morning of its arrival to that of its departure. The song has two forms: one loud and incisive, like the syllables weel-chee, chee, chee, chee’wee, the other less sharp and strong. (See under Chestnut-Sided Warbler) The alarm-note is a rather loud chip.
There is hardly any bird with which the Yellow Warbler can be confused: none of the other warblers is so yellowish above, except the Blue-Winged Warbler; the Goldfinch has black and white wings and tail, and a black forehead. (See, also, Nashville Warbler.)
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)