Yellow-rumped warblers breed across Alaska and Canada and southward through the Western Mountains, Great Lakes and New England. Late autumn migrants (relative to their many cousins), these hardy warblers winter throughout most of the Eastern U.S. as well as California.
Here in Colorado, they begin to drift down from the mountains in September and may be seen along the Front Range urban corridor through October. Since they feed on berries as well as insects, they are in no hurry to move southward. Indeed, while most of our other warblers winter in the Tropics, the majority of Colorado yellow-rumps likely winter in Texas or Mexico.
Early this evening, I watched a pair of these warblers flycatching from bare, sunlit branches in the canopy of our large honeylocust. Perhaps they'll hang out for a few days before moving on.
