Vitelline Warbler

The vitelline warbler is 13 cm (5.1 in) long and weighs 6.2 to 7.5 g (0.22 to 0.26 oz). Adult males of the nominate subspecies S. v. vitellina have an olive-green crown and nape, a wide yellow supercilium, a thin olive-green line through the eye, and yellow ear coverts with a thin olive-green lower and back border. Their upperparts are bright olive-green and their wings and tail mostly so. Their greater and median upperwing coverts have yellowish ends that show as two wing bars. Their outer three pairs of tail feathers have white tips. Their underparts are bright yellow with faint blurry olive streaks on the flanks. Females are slightly duller than males with a fainter border to the ear coverts. Juveniles have a pale grayish or grayish brown head and upperparts, faint pale buff wing bars, and a whitish throat and underparts. Their belly and undertail coverts have a yellowish tinge and the sides of their breast and flanks have a grayish brown wash. Subspecies S. v. crawfordi has a less well defined facial pattern than the nominate, has paler and yellower upperparts, and lacks the olive flank streaks. S. v. nelsoni is intermediate between the other two subspecies. Both sexes of all subspecies have a dark iris, a blackish bill, and blackish brown legs and feet.

The nominate subspecies of the vitelline warbler is found on Grand Cayman Island, S. v. crawfordi on Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, and S. v. nelsoni on the Swan Islands off northern Honduras. The species inhabits several low-stature arid to dry landscapes including scrubby woodland, forest regenerating after logging, and coastal scrublands. It sometimes is also found in urban areas.

The diet and foraging behavior of the vitelline warbler have not been studied. The species is assumed to feed on insects and other arthropods and to forage in the lower to middle levels of its habitat.