Despite their name, Prairie Warblers live in second-growth forests and scrub where you can look for their bright yellow color and listen for the male’s buzzy, ascending song (download a Haikubox recording here). These warblers migrate early in the season, so they are already heading south - you might be lucky enough to host one making a stop in your yard (watch the Prairie Warbler migration captured with Haikubox data).
Spotting one today is harder than just a few years ago since the Prairie Warbler population is in steep decline. According to the State of the Birds 2025, Prairie Warblers are one of 90 species that have lost more than half of their population since 1970. They are joined on the list of Yellow Alert Tipping Point Species by Golden-winged Warblers and Cerulean Warblers. Two other wood warblers, the Golden-cheeked Warbler and Kirtland’s Warbler, are in even greater danger.
Climate change is expected to alter the geographic distribution and overlapping ranges of wood warblers, and scientists predict that the way species interact and hybridize with others is likely to be noticeably different by the end of this century.
The news isn’t all bad: researchers counted male Prairie Warblers residing along the shoreline of eastern Georgian Bay, Ontario and found the population had increased since they were last counted, 18 years before.