Here you see an eastern palm warbler standing tall – all 5 inches of him – among the blossoming maple tree flowerheads. This bird usually is among our earliest spring warblers.
The eastern subspecies (Setophaga palmarum hypochrysea) that we have here usually is called the “yellow palm warbler” due to its bright yellow underparts, whereas the western subspecies (Setophaga palmarum palmarum) usually is called the “brown palm warbler” due to its much drabber, gray-brown appearance.
The yellow palm warbler’s most significant characteristic was perhaps described best by Edward Howe Forbush in his incomparable Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States: “It flits from bush to ground … with its loose-hung tail almost continually wagging with methodic regularity, not from side to side like that of a dog, but up and down like that of a Phoebe, and with the same easy unhurried motion.” (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on April 24, 2025; sex assumed.)