#kirtland's warbler

[rebeccathenaturalist]

It's always good news when a rare native species rebounds from the brink of extinction. The Kirtland's warbler was once down to about two hundred individuals, but with conservation efforts the population is almost to five thousand. This is still a very small number, but it's a heartening change.

The warbler was removed from the U.S. Endangered Species List in 2019. While this may seem like a good thing, it means these birds have lost some of the legal protection that earned them breathing room to recover. It also highlights the very procedural, quantitative way in which government entities try to define whether a species or habitat is "safe" or not. It's not as though once the warbler was off the list its problem all disappeared. Plus there are many species that face extinction that have never been listed simply because the data hasn't been sufficient--or even existent--to prove the threat.

And it also reflects the reductionist view toward science that is still all too common. While restoration ecologists and other conservationists are well aware of the interconnectivity of an ecosystem and how it is more than the sum of its parts, the idea that a single species is endangered in isolation ignores the complex interplay between species and habitat, and how habitat loss is the single biggest cause of endangerment and extinction across the board.

So while we celebrate rising numbers of Kirtland's warblers, we also need to be focused on protecting and restoring the pine forests of the upper Midwest that they prefer in summer, and their wintering grounds in the Bahamas. Moreover, we need to appreciate the need of all the beings in these habitats to have their homes and feeding grounds protected in total, not just a single species here and there. The warbler is just a starting point, and its continued success relies on the health of the intricate systems of which it is a part.

[extinctionstories]

It was never a common species, the blue-grey warbler that locals called the jack pine bird. A belated discovery among American birds, it was undescribed by science until the mid 19th century—and then, known only on the basis of a single specimen. The bird's wintering grounds in the Caribbean would eventually fulfill the demands of collectors and museums, but the intricacies of its lifecycle remained a mystery for decades, the first nest only found in 1903. As the already-rare bird became rarer, people could only guess at why. There were just so few birds to look for, their breeding habitat inscrutable amidst the dense, impassable woodland of their Midwestern home. The one clue was the most apparent thing about the bird: its affinity with the jack pine (Pinus banksiana).

Over time, more nests were found—not in the eponymous trees, as might be expected for a songbird, but on the ground at their feet. Data points converged, leading to the realization that not only did the bird nest almost exclusively in proximity to the scrubby pines, but only utilized trees that fell within a specific range: new growth, between five and fifteen feet tall, with branches that swept shelteringly close to the ground. Subsequently, it would be noticed that the greatest volume of specimen collection for the bird had corresponded with years in which historically significant wildfires had impacted the Midwest—fires that, for decades afterwards, had been staunchly suppressed. The pieces fell into place, like jack pine seeds, whose cones open only under the heat of a blaze.

With the bird's total population having dwindled to the low hundreds, a program of prescribed burns, clearcutting, and replanting was instituted, with many acres of land purchased and devoted to the preservation and maintenance of suitable breeding habitat. Concurrently, efforts were made to protect the vulnerable bird against brood parasitism by the brown-headed cowbird.

When the first federal list of protected species was put forward in 1966, the name of the small grey warbler was inscribed beside birds such as the Kauai ʻōʻō and the Dusky Seaside Sparrow.

The ʻōʻō, last of the genus Moho, would be removed from the list in 2023 due to extinction, after thirty-six years without a sighting.

The endling Dusky Seaside Sparrow, a male named Orange Band, would die of old age in captivity in 1987, with his species being delisted three years later.

in 2019, fifty-two years after the creation of the Endangered Species Protection Act, the name of Kirtland's warbler, too, was removed from the list: it had been determined that, with a population now numbering nearly 5000, the jack pine bird could be considered safely stable.

Conservationists continue to work to preserve the breeding habitat of Kirtland's Warbler in the midwestern US, as well as its winter roosts in the Bahamas and neighboring islands (though selective logging has replaced actual burning in recent years, due to the dangers posed by unpredictable fires). It's the kind of effort that it takes to undo the damage we've caused to the planet and its creatures—the kind of hope that we need, to not give up on them, or on ourselves.

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The title of this piece is Prescribed Burn (Kirtland's Warbler). It is traditional gouache on 18x24" watercolor paper, and is part of my series Conservation Pieces, which focuses on efforts made to save critically endangered birds from extinction.

[scottpartridge]

The rare Kirtland's Warbler, suggested by @brantgeo

[na-bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Kirtland's Warbler

Photo: Joel Trick

"One of our rarest songbirds, Kirtland's is a relatively large warbler that forages slowly, close to the ground, wagging its tail up and down. It nests only in stands of young jack pines in central Michigan, a habitat that grows up only briefly after fires, and its nests have been heavily parasitized in recent decades by Brown-headed Cowbirds. Controlled burning to create more habitat, and control of cowbird numbers, have helped the warbler somewhat, but it is not necessarily out of danger yet."

- Audubon Field Guide

[haveyouseenthisbirdpoll]

Photo source 1

Photo source 2

Map source

[lizardsaredinosaurs]

Kirtland's Warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii)

Ontario, Wisconsin, Michigan; winters in the West Indies

threats: loss of jack pine habitat, historically rare

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I've been drawing some more creatures to stave off stress. I'll queue up one a day for as many as I have!

🐦🐞🐑🦀🐟🦎

-P.

[finchsthoughts]

Crying and sobbing . I love birds so much . I love looking into their meanings and their colors and their songs . I love looking at Finches and Warblers and just falling in love . I am so happy

[deadbirdlife]

Oh hey I was part of the research team that led to them recently being de-listed from Endangered status, and led to the reduction in culling the Brown-headed cowbird across Kirtland's warbler territory. They've really rebounded!

However...their eyes don't normally look squinty like that, so no idea why they chose that for the signage. Real -_- ass motherfucker.

maybe it's just because i got very high at the last rest stop but i cannot stop laughing at how much this bird looks like it did not want to return

[antiqueanimals]

Kirtland's warbler. These are Endangered; written by Charles Cadieux and illustrated by Bob Hines. 1981.

Internet Archive

[proton-wobbler]

Warbler Showdown; Bracket 1, Poll 9

Black-throated Blue Warbler (Setophaga caerulescens)

IUCN Rating: Least Concern

Range: prefers the Appalachian mountains when in the eastern states, otherwise breeding in southeast Canada or New England. Overwinters in the Greater Antilles, as well as the Bahamas and along the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan, Belize, and Honduras.

Habitat: interior forests of undisturbed hardwood and mixed deciduous-coniferous trees.

Kirtland's Warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii)

IUCN Rating: Near Threatened

Range: Restricted. Confined to both peninsula of Michigan (17 counties), as well as Wisconsin (3 counties) and southern Ontario. Winters in the Bahamian archipelago.

Habitat: exclusively breeds in early-successional jack pine forests and overwinters in early-successional broadleaf scrub or shrubby habitats.

Image Sources: BTBW (Matt Zuro); Kirtland's (Bryan Calk)

[kittyms167]

Kiko errored while we were walking through sandy state forest in Michigan

[birdblues]

Kirtland’s Warbler

[brucestambaughsblog]

A Birder's Dream Come True

Kirtland’s Warbler, Waynesboro, Virginia. Photo by Bruce Stambaugh When I opened the email from the birding listserv this morning, I knew I would pursue this rare bird. Fall bird migration was in full swing, and it’s a real rarity when a Kirtland’s Warbler is spotted. Experts estimate that only 1,500 of this species remain today. It turned out that this bird was in a park only a mile from the…

[crossbills]

Kirtland's Warbler, jack pine bird, Setophaga kirtlandii

Tony Fitzpatrick, Michigan Bird, 2024

Collage

[microsff]

"There!" The robot pointed. "In that spruce, a male Kirtland warbler."

The other birders pointed their binoculars at the tree and went "Ooh!"

"I envy your vision," one of them said.

"Vision is just physics," the robot said. "I envy your sense of smell."

[railwayhistorical]

Four Years Gone

Went with an old friend, from my New York days, to see a Kirtland's Warbler. The bird is quite rare due to it having rigid nesting requirements—jack pines of a certain height I believe.

This shot, of a singing male, was made during a tour, with the leader making sure we stayed on the trail and kept our distance.

One image by Richard Koenig; taken June 27th 2019, near Grayling, Michigan.