The Myrtle group breeds from Alaska east across Canada to Newfoundland. The northern subspecies of Audubon’s group winters from Vancouver Island south along the Pacific Coast to central California and in Arizona, southern New Mexico and south through Mexico to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (Hunt and Flaspohler 1998). Isolated resident populations of two other subspecies are found in the mountains of northwest Mexico and in Chiapas (Mexico) and adjacent Guatemala. (Lockwood and Freeman 2004).Įlsewhere in western North America one subspecies of the Audubon’s group breeds in the higher mountains from British Columbia and Alberta south to northern Baja California (Mexico), Arizona and New Mexico. The winter range of the Myrtle race in Texas overlaps that of the Audubon’s. In migration and winter, the Audubon’s race is most commonly found in Texas in the Trans-Pecos region.while the Myrtle group is more common in the eastern two-thirds of Texas. The 2 possible records from further east may be late migrants of either the Myrtle or Audubon’s groups both groups winter in this area The area deserves further study since breeding has not been reported there. The probable and 2 possible records in Big Bend National Park probably also represent the Audubon’s race. The confirmed breeding record found in the Guadalupe Mountains and the probable in the Davis Mountains of Trans-Pecos Texas, match the locations described by Lockwood and Freeman (2004) where the Audubon’s race of the Yellow-rumped Warbler is a summer resident. During the 1987-1992 field work of the TBBA project, observers found 7 locations with possible, probable or confirmed breeding evidence. See Pyle (1997) and Hunt and Flaspohler (1998) for plumage details.ĭISTRIBUTION. Non-breeding plumages of both races are duller and more easily confused with other species. These two identifiable forms have similar plumages and life histories and interbreed in a narrow area of British Columbia and Alberta where their ranges overlap.
The taxon was formed by lumping the white-throated Myrtle Warbler with the yellow-throated Audubon’s Warbler, both long considered separate species. The Yellow-rumped Warbler is one of the most common breeding warblers in North America and the most common warbler in the United States in winter.At this season it changes its diet from insects to fruits.