The cheeks are yellowish, but a duller shade than the males. The golden-cheeked warbler is entirely insectivorous. Prey items include beetles, soft-bodied caterpillars, deer flies, and spiders. The warbler spends most of its time foraging on foot moving from branch to branch picking insects from the foliage. The female golden-cheeked warbler spends approximately 4 days in early April building a compact nest comprised of Ashe juniper bark strips bound with spider webs and grass.
Females usually place their nests in the upper two-thirds of nest trees.
Ashe juniper is the most common nest tree for the golden-cheeked warbler, but the nests can also be found in oaks, walnuts, pecans, and bald cypress. Females lay clutches of 3-4 creamy white eggs speckled with brown. Incubation is done by the female and lasts 12 days. Golden-cheeked warbler hatchlings are fed by both the male and the female. Fledging occurs at about 9 days.