Rumpy

the Yellow-Rumped Warbler​

Rumpy is the yellow-rumped warbler who lives in Tootie’s backyard in late autumn, winter, and early spring.

Rumpy is a warbler who visits Tootie and Yoshi every year from early fall through late spring when she migrates north for the summer.

Like other species of warblers, Rumpy is small and fast. You can identify her by the yellow spot where her tail feathers meet her back, or her rump. Rumpy also has yellow spots on her belly near her wings.

While Rumpy is a brown bird, the males of her species are black or gray.

Rumpy’s Home

Rumpy was born in a mixed coniferous forest, or a forest of evergreen trees with cones and needles for leaves, in northern Minnesota.

Her mom built her cup-shaped nest in a white cedar tree using a combination of materials her dad brought and materials she collected.

The nest was built using pine needles, grass, rootlets, and moss and was lined with hair and feathers that warmed the eggs.

Rumpy was one of four chicks born in her brood, or a group of birds born to the same family at the same time.

During the autumn, winter, and spring, Rumpy lives high in the pine tree in Tootie’s backyard. During the spring, Rumpy leaves Tootie’s backyard to travel north where she raises her family every year.

What times of year have you seen Rumpy in your yard?

Rumpy’s Hobbies

Rumpy hangs out in trees in Tootie’s backyard, especially the pines. She also likes to hang out on the sweetgum tree and the bushes that grow in Tootie’s backyard.

When Rumpy arrives in the autumn, she forages alone. During the winter, she sometimes hangs out with her family and friends, foraging in groups. She sometimes forages with other warblers, like palm, magnolia, and black-throated green warblers.

Most often Tootie and Yoshi see her flitting back and forth quickly between the leaves on the trees as she hunts for food. Sometimes, she sits quietly on a tree limb waiting for a flying bug to pass by or diving to snatch a bug while in flight. Rumpy is acrobatic, able to turn quickly to catch bugs

She sings a chek sound as she flies and forages and psit and tsee as she flies.

What activities are the birds in your backyard doing?

Rumpy’s Diet

Rumpy is an omnivore, meaning she eats both meat and plants. She loves to eat bugs during the autumn and eats berries and seeds as it gets colder.

Rumpy is a foliage gleaner, meaning she forages for bugs on leaves and branches during the warmer months. Rumpy forages on bushes once the cooler weather causes the bugs to hibernate and die off.

Her favorite foods are tree beetles and caterpillars. She also likes aphids, caddisflies, crane flies, gnats, grasshoppers, and spiders.

She loves berries found on poison ivy, poison oak, greenbrier, grapes, Virginia creepers, and dogwood fruits, and seeds from grasses and goldenrod.

What other animals do you know that are omnivores?

Learn more about Rumpy.

Activities

Crossword


1. Type of bird Rumpy is.
2. Color of Rumpy's rump.
3. Time of year Rumpy visits Tootie and Yoshi.
4. State Rumpy was born in.
5. Rumpy's favorite autumn food.
6. Where you're most likely to see Rumpy.
7. A kind of tree Rumpy likes.
8. A favorite food of Rumpy's.
9. A group of birds born in the same nest at the same time.
10. Type of tree Rumpy was born in.