Warblers, Warblers, Everywhere There Are Warblers (part 3 of BWIAB)

Warblers are the headliners of American bird migration. Even though many species of birds migrate through in the spring and fall, it is the warblers that get the press and the glamour shots. This post will focus on the warblers we saw during The Biggest Week in American Birding (BWIAB) festival. A later post will highlight some of the non-warblers that deserve attention too. Be sure to read about my experiences with tours and overall impressions of the festival too. 

There is a lot to talk about here as warblers are one of the largest families of birds that migrate through the eastern US. The festival checklist lists 37 potential warblers for the area. 

Our most frequently seen was the Northern yellow warbler. It is probably seen so often since they breed in the area instead of just passing through. These bright, all yellow birds with a bit of red streaking on the front are always a joy to see.

Yellow warbler high in a tree 

The Northern yellow warbler was one of the first warblers we saw at the festival and made it onto 16 of our checklists with sightings from at least two different locations each day. There probably wasn't a time birding when we weren't seeing them. Often when in a place for a while a common bird will feel distracting from the cool new birds you haven't seen yet. You wish they would fade into the background so you can concentrate on the new. But these happy little yellow birds never got to that point. Yes, they were everywhere but I was happy to keep seeing them.

Yet another northern yellow warbler showing off

They are the only completely yellow warbler in the US but many other warblers have lots of yellow in their plumage. There is an interesting article in the current Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Living Birds magazine about how the gene for the yellow color has moved around between warbler species. Quite the interesting read.  

For instance, the prothonotary warbler is a common breeder in the southeast where I live. They hang out low in trees and have a loud song making them easy to find when they are around. They also have a very striking yellow but it is much deeper and darker, especially when seen in the woods and swamps where the color really pops. 

We only saw a few at the festival. This photo is from the one that came really close to us during the tour at Sheldon Marsh (full story at previous post). It cut right through the line of birders on an overlook as it worked its way along the edge of the water. It didn't even say "excuse me" but none of us minded.

Protonotary warbler getting ready to fly

Most years I am able to see a few magnolia warblers either near home or on our annual birding trip to the Virginia mountains. In spring, they sport a striking necklace with stripes and a cool little white patch behind the eye. The rest of the year they have the same basic pattern but are less colorful. This goes for a lot of warbler species. During non-breeding time, the magnolia warblers hang out at cacao plantations among other spots in Central America and the Caribbean. And who wouldn't hang out at a cacao plantation if they could?

This photo is of one that was part of a group of warblers we saw on the fall-out day while walking the trail behind Magee Marsh boardwalk. Every couple of minutes we would see a few birds flitting around feeding in the shrubs. The view here was especially nice since the shrubs were down in a ditch between the gravel path and the boardwalk so we had great eye-level views. 

Magnolia warbler

At the end of that gravel trail, as it reaches the parking lot, we encountered a dense patch of birders watching a mixed flock of warblers. There were several birds in here that were new to us for the day. A half-dozen species moved back and forth just over our heads. Everyone's attention was torn between this amazing bird and that amazing bird. And WOW, look at that view. I could hardly keep up with the show. A particular highlight in the group was this Cape May warbler.  This is one of the more recent life warblers for me with my first sighting in 2015, and only once before have I seen one in spring plumage. At the festival, I got to feast on seeing eight individuals during the week. Such a bounty. 

The bird's English name is a funny story. It was named by the early American ornithologist Alexander Wilson from a specimen collected at Cape May, NJ in the late 1800's. Cape May is one of the great birding spots in North America, but not to see Cape May warblers.  It was over a hundred years before another one was reported there.

 

Cape May warbler, not in Cape May, NJ

On Wednesday as we headed down the trail to search for the Kirtland's warbler (see first post for the full story), we passed a small group of birders fixated on a spot in the trees. We quickly determined it wasn't the Kirtland's warbler we were racing towards and moved on. As we returned from our successful hunt, there was still a small group watching this wonderfully close black-throated green warbler. Such great views of a wonderful bird would top almost any birding list but today it has to share the glory with the very rare Kirtland's.

Black-throated green warbler surprisingly low in the trees

There are multiple species of warblers named for the black patch on their throat. The two most common in the east are the black-throated blue and black-throated green warblers. While not super closely related (they are in the same genus but there are other warblers more closely related to each), and not looking much alike, their similar names tie them together in my mind. 

Black-throated blue warbler on the Magee Marsh boardwalk

A couple of warblers add some nice reddish-brown color to their palette. The Cape May warbler mentioned above has a rusty patch on the side of it's head. The bay-breasted warbler below is named for its patch on the breast and sides, as well as a bit of a cap. This is a bird that really changes its plumage between breeding and non-breeding times. Most warblers end up more drab and subdued in the fall. Bay-breasted look completely different becoming grey with a bit of yellow speckling the head. Males keep a bit of the orange coloring under the wings. Another super exciting sighting with Best Views Ever. I've only seen a handful of this species before with all but one in their drab fall plumage.  

Bay-breasted warbler

The chestnut-sided warbler is named for the chestnuts it carries under its wings so it always has a snack at hand. No, really it has a darker red, chestnut color, along the sides. There were several around Magee Marsh including in that group with the Cape May warbler. It was hard to decide which to focus on, they are both so beautiful. When we were in Costa Rica a decade ago, we saw a lot of wintering chestnut-sided warblers. It was cool to see them while we were so far from home.

Chestnut-sided warbler showing the sides and hoping for a caterpillar snack

One of the joys of this trip was seeing a lot of warblers that we don't normally get to see. A good example is the Nashville warbler. Half of my sightings are from Ohio. My first few sightings were from  my early years of birding when I was lucky enough to be visiting my parents during a migration fall-out in southwest Ohio. I didn't really know about fall-outs or even much about migration patterns at the time. I was visiting for a weekend and had found that the local bird club held Saturday walks. I convinced my parents, non-birders at the time, to join me for the morning. It turned out to be a major event with a whole range of warblers seen in just a few trees. I saw 17 life birds that day including 10 warblers. Many I wouldn't see again for several years as they aren't regular migrants close to the coast. I saw two Nashville warblers that first day in Ohio. It was nearly 20 years before I recorded my next one. 

It also has a poor location name. It breeds in southern Canada and winters in Mexico and Central America. It does pass through Nashville during migration so it has a little better relationship with the location it is named for than the Cape May warbler. Again, it was named for where an early ornithologist collected a specimen.

Nashville warbler collecting insects from a leaf

I'll close this survey of warblers with one of the most striking and beautiful warblers in the eastern US, the Blackburnian warbler. It has a fire-orange head with black markings that turns yellow as it progresses down the chest and belly. They prefer feeding high in trees so most of my views have been of their belly and throat while straining my neck. The ones here were at much more comfortable viewing heights. 

This bird also has an interesting common name. It is named to honor Anna Blackburne, a British botanist and naturalist of the 1700's, who never saw one alive. But it is kind of a fitting name bringing to mind the black markings on the head and fiery orange.

Blackburnian warbler showing that beautiful color

In preparation for the festival, my wife and I had listed seven warblers that we particularly hoped to see. These are warblers we haven't seen often including two that would be life sightings. We spent time making sure we could quickly identify them and their songs. I was thinking that we might see one or two and wanted to be quick to identify since they would likely be fleeting views. The festival yet again over-delivered. We found four of the seven including the lifer Kirtland's talked about in the first post on the festival. The Cape May and Nashville warblers were on the list and gave us multiple, good views. 

Out of the 37 species on the festival checklist, we saw 26 during this trip; 25 at the festival. The other one was a Louisiana waterthrush seen at a stop in Pennsylvania. That was an interesting find since Louisiana waterthrush is the only warbler on the festival checklist that no one reported during the festival. Based on eBird data, they seem to breed along the Appalachian mountains and foothills so ones seen along Lake Erie probably would have overshot during migration. 

Next time I will talk about some of the water-related birds seen on the trip.