Yellow-rumped Warbler eating poison ivy berries

 

A female Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata) noshes on the fruit of poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans). Shauna and I found this bird on today's Hocking Hills Christmas Bird Count in Hocking County, Ohio. It was one of 11 "butter-butts" that we located.

Poison Ivy is an important source of wintertime sustenance for this hardy warbler - the only warbler species that winters in numbers at northerly latitudes such as Ohio. The much reviled (by people, not other animals) native vine is relished by many other bird species. At one point today, we saw a Carolina Chickadee eating poison ivy fruit, and I have over the years photographed many other species partaking of this fruit.