Prothonotary Warbler

This strikingly golden warbler favours flooded bottomland forest, swamps and streamside thickets in the eastern United States, nesting in tree cavities and old woodpecker holes low over water, which makes it one of the few warblers you can find at eye level rather than craning upward into the canopy. Its loud, ringing series of sweet notes carries well through dense swamp vegetation, often heard before the bright yellow-orange plumage is spotted against dark water. Late spring through mid-summer, during the breeding season, is the best time to find singing males in flooded forest habitat.