American Redstart

Setophaga ruticilla · Warblers

American Redstart, tail flared

Green-Wood Cemetery, 29 August 2026

An American Redstart at Green-Wood at the end of August with the tail snapped open, the yellow patches at the base of the feathers doing exactly the job they are built for. Redstarts breed in the deciduous woods of the East and Canada and pass through Brooklyn in numbers on the way to the Caribbean, feeding hard as they go.

The flash is meant to startle insects out of cover so the bird can chase them down. Redstarts feed this way constantly, fanning the tail and drooping the wings as they move through the foliage, and the habit is as good a mark as the colour. The yellow rather than orange makes this a female or a first-year bird; adult males are black and flame-orange.

American Redstart, female

Green-Wood Cemetery, 29 August 2026

A female American Redstart at Green-Wood at the end of August, heading south to the Caribbean after a summer in the woods of the North. Redstarts breed in second-growth woodland across the East and pass through Brooklyn in numbers both ways.

Grey-headed and olive above with yellow rather than the male's orange: the female and first-year male pattern, brightening to orange-and-black only once a male reaches full adult plumage in its second year. Redstarts hunt more like flycatchers than typical warblers, flashing the tail open to startle insects into moving and then chasing them down in short sallies.

Female American Redstart

Central Park, 21 September 2025

A female American Redstart in Central Park in September, passing through on migration from the northern woods to the Caribbean. Redstarts breed in second-growth deciduous forest across the East, and Central Park in September is a stopover for thousands of them.

Olive-grey rather than the adult male's black, with the same yellow flash through the wing and tail. She is fanning the tail out here to show exactly the pattern that is meant to startle insects into moving. Redstarts are the most flycatcher-like of the warblers, with bristles at the base of the bill to help them catch what they flush.

American Redstart

Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 31 August 2025

An American Redstart at the Botanic Garden at the end of August, olive rather than black with yellow rather than orange patches: a female or a first-year male, since adult males don't get the full black-and-orange until their second year. Redstarts breed in the deciduous woods of the East and Canada and pass through Brooklyn in numbers on the way to the Caribbean.

They fan the tail and flash these patches deliberately while foraging, apparently to startle insects into moving and giving themselves away. In Latin America it is called candelita, the little candle, for the same flash.