BAHAMA YELLOWTHROAT
The Bahama Yellowthroat Geothlypis rostrata is one of 5 bird species endemic to the Bahamas. Three other endemics found on Abaco are the Bahama Woodstar, Bahama Warbler and Bahama Swallow. The fifth is the endangered Bahama Oriole, now only found in very small numbers on Andros. They once lived on Abaco, but are unrecorded there since the 1990s and are considered extirpated. You can find out more about all these endemic birds together in a nest HERE.
I’m fond of these birds with their striking Zorro masks. It is one of the few species that I am able to imitate with sufficient accuracy to draw one out of the coppice. Their call is usually described as a ‘wichety-wichety‘. I realise that the talent to mimic it has no other use in life. Here’s a short recording I made – the Yellowthroat is the first and last call of the sample, with other species in between.
Photo Credits: Gerlinde Taurer (1, 2); Bruce Hallett (3,); sound recording Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour
ROLLING HARBOUR ABACO 
They are so pretty. I notice the markings at the side of the mask on the second image is rounder, whereas the other two come to more of a point. Could they be two species, or is a variation in the shape of the mask common? We have the Common Yellowthroat here in Alberta with the rounded edges to the sides of the mask. They should arrive about mid May and I look forward to it.
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Same species, maybe different stages of breeding plumage or just local variants. We get CYs as well so can compare. Equally lovely but don’t come with the cachet of being endemic!
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Makes our US Common Yellowthroat seem “SCRAWNEY”
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You are mixing them up with Scrawny Owls I think…
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