Common Yellowthroat on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge 01 (15566851385)

A juvenile male common yellowthroat spotted in the willows along the Green River on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge. Adult males are bright yellow below, with a sharp black face mask and olive upperparts. A thin whitish line sets off the black mask from the head and neck. Immature males show traces of the full mask of adult males. Common yellowthroats forage on or near the ground, eating bugs, flies, beetles, ants, termites, bees, wasps, grasshoppers, dragonflies, damselflies, moths, butterflies, caterpillars, and other larvae. They are common nesters at Seedskadee NWR and their distinctive "witchety-witchety-witchety" call can be heard in late spring and early summer along refuge wetlands and riparian corridor along the Green River. Common yellowthroats are numerous but they have been gradually declining by almost 1 percent per year since 1966, resulting in a cumulative decline of about 33 percent, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.
<a href="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/common_yellowthroat/lifehistory" www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/common_yellowthroat/lifehistory</a>

Photo: Tom Koerner/USFWS