We always seem to post photos of birds like this, an adult female Kentucky warbler, because they are unusual and get everybody’s attention. However, the last few days have looked more like this:
Worm-eating warblers and Black & white warblers have been moving through in good numbers; in fact Worm-eating is our number one capture for the season right now as we close in on 500 birds banded so far. They are early migrants and their numbers will be exceeded by Ovenbirds , Black-throated blue warblers and American redstarts as the season wears on. Worm-eating warblers have a unique head pattern among North American wood warblers and are specialists at picking insects out of dead rolled-up leaves.
Here are totals for yesterday and today:
Sept 6/7
TOTALS: 60/67
Worm-eating warbler: 21/20
Black & white warbler: 10/19
Ovenbird: 11/11
American redstart: 9/5
Northern waterthrush: 4/2
Black-throated blue warbler: 2/2
Swainson’s warbler: 0/3
Prairie warbler: 1/0
Yellow-throated vireo: 1/0
Yellow-throated warbler: 1/0
Common yellowthroat: 0/1
Kentucky warbler: 0/1
Northern cardinal: 0/1
Northern parula: 0/1
Traill’s flycatcher: 0/1
Nice photo of the Worm-eating showing that neat striped head pattern. This is one of my favorite warblers. One turned up in my yard 17 days ago. Keep up the good work!
Thanks very much for your support – on several levels!
Robin, Michelle, Liz, Mickey, Mario
Hi wormy!