The bear market in stocks over the past year has created an excellent opportunity for investors seeking dividend income. With stock prices falling, dividend yields are rising. That's enabling investors to earn more passive income from new investments. Meanwhile, many companies are supercharging their yields by increasing their dividends.

Four top-notch dividend stocks that offer attractive payouts these days are Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE: BIP), Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI), Clearway Energy (NYSE: CWEN) (NYSE: CWEN.A), and Williams Companies (NYSE: WMB). They all offer dividend yields above 4% -- more than double the S&P 500's average -- and should continue growing their payouts in the future.

Units of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners have declined by about 17.5% over the past year. That's a steeper decline than its corporate twin, Brookfield Infrastructure Corporation (NYSE: BIPC), experienced; it shed roughly 7% of its value. So the partnership units offer a much higher dividend yield of 4.7% despite the two being economically equivalent entities.

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Source Fool.com