GuideAbout

What’s happening outside now.

Right outsideBirds

Yellow-rumped warblers eating berries in late fall

October to November

Yellow-rumped warblers are the common warbler of late fall in eastern Massachusetts, working through fruiting shrubs and vines along yards and woodland edges in loose flocks. They can digest the waxy coating on bayberry and wax myrtle fruit and also eat juniper and poison ivy berries, so they stay after most other warblers have left.

Why this time of year

Yellow-rumped warblers migrate later in fall than other warblers, and in New England they are by far the most common late-season warbler, with birds lingering into November. As insects decline they shift to fruit, which is why a berry-loaded shrub or vine is the place to find them late in the season.

How to notice it

  1. Check any shrub or vine still loaded with small berries: bayberry, poison ivy, or redcedar (juniper) fruit.
  2. Look for a loose, moving flock of small, drab, streaky gray-brown birds, often mixed in with chickadees, kinglets or sparrows.
  3. Watch a bird fly off and look for the flash of bright yellow at the base of its tail, the rump patch that gives it its name.
  4. Listen for a flat, one-note "check" call as the flock works through the branches.

Try this with kids: Watch one fly to the next bush and see if you can catch the flash of yellow on its rump. That yellow patch belongs to a warbler that can eat waxy bayberries.

Safety

  • Poison ivy berries are part of this bird's diet. Look at the vine from a distance and do not touch the berries or the leaves.

Sources

  • audubon.orgDiet includes berries of bayberry, juniper, wax myrtle and poison ivy; the species migrates later in fall than other warblers; forms flocks; gives a sharp 'chek' call; and commonly winters as far north as New England.
  • audubon.orgBirdNote transcript (2016) on audubon.org: yellow-rumped warblers have elevated bile salts that let them digest the waxy fruit of bayberry and wax myrtle, which 'probably account[s] for its ability to inhabit a winter range farther north than its relatives'.
  • massaudubon.orgMass Audubon breeding bird atlas: the Yellow-rumped Warbler is 'the only warbler that can reliably be found in the Bay State year-round', an adaptation tied to digesting the waxy fruits of bayberry and wax myrtle; it also breeds in the state.
  • nhaudubon.orgNH Audubon (posted 2025-10-10, New Hampshire): 'by far our most common late-season warbler, with individuals lingering into November'; flocks with chickadees, kinglets and sparrows; shifts to fruit, especially bayberry, as insects decline; other late warblers such as Palm Warbler also linger.

Checked against these sources on September 22, 2026.

In the guide for October, November

Also worth noticing