Prothonotary Warbler at nest box

Peek-a-boo! This beautiful male Prothonotary Warbler looks as if it is poking its head out of a nest box; it had almost landed on my hiking boot and immediately went to work searching for insects trapped in spider webs between the decking planks and the raised edge of the wooden boardwalk. Photographed during my Songbirds of Pelee Workshop in Point Pelee National Park of Canada on May 7, 2024.

Prothonotary warbler at Nest Box (Protonotaria citrea, Pauline orangée, PROW) from my SONGBIRDS OF PELEE WORKSHOP at Point Pelee National Park of Canada in Leamington, Ontario, Canada ©Christopher Dodds All Rights Reserved. Sony Alpha a9 III Mirrorless camera & Sony FE 600mm f/4 G Master OSS Lens with Sony FE 2X Teleconverter @1,200mm. ISO 20,000, f/8 @ 1/5,000s Manual exposure.

Prothonotary Warbler

A Prothonotary Warbler pauses on an open perch during my Songbirds of Pelee Workshop in Point Pelee National Park of Canada. We had some amazing encounters with at least four Prothonotary Warblers (endangered species in Ontario).

Prothonotary warbler (Protonotaria citrea, Pauline orangée, PROW) from my SONGBIRDS OF PELEE WORKSHOP at Point Pelee National Park of Canada in Leamington, Ontario, Canada ©Christopher Dodds All Rights Reserved. Sony Alpha a9 III Mirrorless camera & Sony FE 600mm f/4 G Master OSS Lens with Sony FE 2X Teleconverter @1,200mm. ISO 20,000, f/8 @ 1/5,000s Manual exposure.

Prothonotary warbler

We had a blast photographing at least four Prothonotary warblers during my recently concluded Songbirds of Pelee workshop. This image was created using my Sony Alpha 1 and my Sony 600mm f/4 lens with 1.4X teleconverter attached. The warbler had flown over and landed on the boardwalk just behind me, before landing on this perch directly in front of me at minimum focusing distance.

Prothonotary warbler with a spider

We had a great time photographing the Prothonotary warblers during my Songbirds of Pelee workshop; this one brought its dinner to show off at the minimum focusing distance of my lens.

Prothonotary warblers eat adult insects and larvae (primarily aquatic insects), ants, caterpillars, mayflies, beetles, and other insects, as well as snails and other small mollusks, spiders, and some seeds.

Prothonotary Warbler Launching

Another image from my recently concluded Songbirds of Pelee workshop. As this Prothonotary warbler was foraging on this great perch, a Northern Waterthrush flew over it, and the Prothonotary warbler quickly gave chase. This was a lucky catch for me, as I was reorienting the camera from horizontal to vertical when I noticed it happening :)

Prothonotary Warblers are unique among the warbler family because they breed in nest cavities instead of making nests on tree branches. They choose tree cavities, dug out by woodpeckers or chickadees, that are either standing in water or within 5 m (16 feet) of water.

Prothonotary Warblers get their name from papal clerks, called prothonotaries, who wore yellow robes. However, it is also possible that the name derives from the notaries (known as protonotaires) who played a significant role in the 18th and 19th-century legal system of Louisiana, the state where the bird was first described. One point against that theory is that the notaries did not wear yellow.