Reddish streaks on back are distinctive, but can be difficult to see or absent on immatures. The Florida has been listed as a species of special concern, because of a decline in its mangrove habitat and because of an invasion of cowbirds. Long tail is often pumped up and down, but not as consistently as Palm Warbler. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Contrary to its name, the Prairie Warbler is a bird of scrubby fields, clearcuts, and open woods, where it can be located by its buzzy, ascending song, tail-pumping habit, and black-streaked yellow plumage. Periodically, other warblers are spotted throughout Florida in the winter, but they are either very early migrants or birds that for one reason or another did not continue on their south bound migration. For more on Florida’s winter warblers, see: www2.stetson.edu/~pmay/emeralda/emaral19.htm, and www.10000birds.com/winter-wood-warblers-in-southeast-florida.htm. Speaking of Green Cay and Wakodahatchee, both located in Boynton Beach about a mile apart, all 10 warblers featured here we have either seen there, or in the case of Ovenbird, have been reported there. Mangroves are now protected, which helps the prairie. Prairies on occasion will nest in live oak trees. There are some subtle physical differences between the two subspecies; the Florida birds are slightly larger and have white spots in the tail. A subspecies that's found only in Florida, called the Florida prairie warbler, S d paludicola, appropriately enough prefers mangrove forests of all things. In many bird species, unsuspecting parents devote energy to the invaders' offspring that normally would go to their own. Warblers in the winter in Florida are in their basic, drab, “don’t care about courting or attracting a mate,” curl up by the fire in comfort, couldn’t care less plumage. Small warbler, yellow overall with black streaks on sides and unique face pattern. Cowbird females deposit their eggs in the nests of other species rather than rear their own young. Males are territorial, and will return to the same breeding area year after year. Upperparts are duller olive. A tail-wagging yellow warbler with black streaks down its sides, the Prairie Warbler is found in scrubby fields and forests throughout the eastern and south-central United States, not on the prairies. The most common of the bird's two subspecies is called the northern prairie warbler, and is also found in the Sunshine State as both a year-round resident and as a migrant on its way to winter in the Caribbean. As I am writing this column Yellow-breasted Chat reports have come in on rare bird lists from two different locations in central Florida. While they are pretty plain all winter long it is interesting to watch them begin to get some of their breeding color late in March when they are about to begin their northward migration. Prairie warblers are members of Parulidae, the their own family. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the northern subspecies is a relatively new resident of Florida, nesting here only since the latter half of the 20th century. Females do all of the sitting. Birding field guides indicate that Orange-crowned Warblers, American Redstart and Northern Waterthrushes also winter in Florida, and I do have poor photos of the Orange-crowned and Redstarts, but must confess that I have not seen a Northern Waterthrush in Florida. Not a bird of open prairies, this warbler nests mainly in young second growth scrub and densely overgrown fields in eastern North America. Its range also extends as far west and Missouri and northeastern Texas. This species has a bold facial pattern that gives it a “spectacled” appearance. The second most common winter warbler in Florida is the Yellow-rumped warbler (photo 2) which can be seen flashing its “butter butt” in just about any suitable habitat: woods edges, marshes, road-sides, but less likely to be seen in residential shrubbery. (photo 3) However, birders have to go looking for these more secretive birds, as they are found primarily in marshes and along woods edges.