Golden-cheeked Warbler

About the Golden-cheeked Warbler

A small songbird about five inches long, the breeding male unmistakable with a jet-black back and throat, a brilliant golden-yellow face split by a sharp black eye-line, and clean white underparts. Females and young are softer versions of the same pattern - greener above, with a paler face.

Golden-cheeks glean caterpillars and insects high in the oaks, announcing themselves with a buzzy, rising song. They are completely dependent on mature Ashe juniper: the female peels long strips of its bark to weave her nest, which is why old-growth cedar-and-oak canyons matter so much to this bird.

This is Texas's only endemic breeding bird - it nests nowhere else on Earth. It arrives in the Hill Country's juniper-oak canyons from March into July before returning to Central America, and the wooded canyons west of Austin and the Balcones Canyonlands are classic places to find one.

A note from behind the lens: these are a bucket-list bird, best worked on still spring mornings when the males sing from exposed perches. As an endangered species they deserve a respectful distance and no call playback - patience and soft early light do the rest.