Common yellowthroat Geothlypis trichas

Identification Tips:

• Length: 4.25 inches
• Small, insect-eating bird
• Thin, pointed bill
• Yellow throat and breast
• Brownish flanks
• Whitish belly
• Olive upperparts
• Pink legs
• Considerable plumage variation across its range

Adult male:

• Black mask with white upper border
• Bright yellow throat

Female and immature:

• Brownish-olive head
• Broken white eye ring
• Throat and breast not as bright yellow as adult males
• Immature males begin to acquire the black mask in the fall

Similar species:

The adult male Common Yellowthroat is instantly recognizable with its black mask. Immature males often have a semblance of the mask. Females and immatures are similar to female and immature Mourning and MacGillivray's Warblers but yellowthroats have whiter bellies and lack a gray hood or olive breast band.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.