Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

The male common yellowthroat is my favorite masked bandit of the marshlands. In researching the species, however, I discovered yellowthroat habitat preferences have more to do with a marsh’s low, dense vegetation than they do with water; they’re as fond of dense briar patches and overgrown fields as they are marshes. Still, marshlands are ideal, and that’s certainly where I typically encounter them.

Even though the bird is unmistakable and hard to miss – olive-brown with a shock of bright mustard and a smattering of lemon set off by a bold black mask fringed with white 🍋🦹‍♂️ – I usually hear the common yellowthroat before I see it. Its song is described with the mnemonic wichity-wichity-wichity, but I tend to hear it as a high-pitched look at me, look at me, look at me! So I oblige. 🤓

Here in Northern California, the singing male is usually perched near the top of a tall tule, or bulrush, reed. When this handsome fellow isn’t asking us to admire him, he’s busy hunting insects and spiders or assisting a female with parental duties. She takes on the lioness’ share of that work, doing all of the nest building and egg brooding herself, but the male handles guard duty and assists with feeding the young and cleaning the nest.

Interestingly, the common yellowthroat has benefited from conservation efforts primarily designed to aid waterfowl. This hopeful trend is noted for many species of flora and fauna that depend on wetlands; these successful and ongoing conservation efforts are largely funded by hunting-related fee and tax revenue, a fact I often emphasize – the interests and goals of hunter conservationists and non-hunter environmentalists usually align because, fundamentally, both groups want to steward habitat. Everybody’s time is better spent looking for points of policy agreement, so that baby steps can be made.

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.