Grace’s Warbler Gallery

Setophaga graciae

eBird describes the Grace’s Warbler this way:  Found in pine forests, where it stays high in trees foraging for insects. Gray above and white below with striking yellow throat, breast, and eyebrow. Two white wingbars. Compare with “Audubon’s” Yellow-rumped Warbler, which has yellow on sides and rump, no yellow eyebrow, and yellow restricted to throat (not breast). Grace’s sings a choppy, usually two-parted musical trill.  All About Birds has this descriptive information about the Grace’s Warbler:  The tiny, restless Grace’s Warbler is a specialist in mature pine forests in the southwestern U.S. and points south. These gray, white, and yellow warblers stay in the treetops, where they hop among small branches or disappear into clumps of pine needles, both to catch insects and to visit nests hidden within. As its mature-pine habitat has disappeared over the last half-century, Grace’s Warbler numbers have dwindled, and they are now on the Yellow Watch List for species with declining populations.

I saw and photographed a Grace’s Warbler during my August 31, 2020 visit to Christmas Mountains Oasis.  The owner of the Oasis, Carolyn Ohl-Johnson, told me she had been trying to get a picture of this warbler for several days, but had not been successful.  While staked out on a tree Carolyn was watering, I was able to watch and photograph a Grace’s Warbler.  The pictures are not great, but this little warbler is restless, indeed!