Kirtland's warbler
Kirtland's warbler | |
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Male in Michigan, United States | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Parulidae |
Genus: | Setophaga |
Species: | S. kirtlandii
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Binomial name | |
Setophaga kirtlandii (Baird, 1852)
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The minimum range of S. kirtlandii in the early 1970s, as of 2019 the range has expanded considerably Breeding range Winter range
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Synonyms[citation needed] | |
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Kirtland's warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii), also known in Michigan by the
The population of the species spends the spring and summer in their breeding range in the Great Lakes region of Canada (Ontario) and the United States (Wisconsin and Michigan, especially in the northeastern Lower Peninsula), and winters in the West Indies.
Taxonomy
This species was first recorded by Europeans relatively late for a bird from eastern
Ten years later the
In 1858 Baird moved the species, still then only known from his single specimen, to the genus
By 1865 only four individuals were known to have been collected. Baird lists the male specimen from the Cabot collection, the holotype, a first female specimen shot in 1860 near Cleveland and preserved by R. K. Winslow, and a fourth (which Winslow mentioned had also been killed near Cleveland but had not been preserved).[6] Local naturalist Philo Romayne Hoy also mentioned having possibly seen the species once near the village of Racine, Ohio, in the 1850s.[9]
Etymology
Baird decided to name the bird after Jared Potter Kirtland: "a gentleman to whom, more than any one living, we are indebted for a knowledge of the
Description
Male Kirtland's warblers have bluish-grey upper body parts, with dark streaks on the back, yellow bellies, and dark streaks on the flanks and sides. It has black
The eggs are a "delicate" pinkish white when fresh, fading to a dull white after a time. There are a few scattered sprinkles in various shades of brown[3] and pink, these sprinkles and blotches concentrated at the top[4] or form a sort of wreath at the larger end.[3] The egg is not very glossy.[4] It is 18 by 14mm in size.[3][4] The shell is very thin.[4]
Similar species
Baird compared and found it most similar to Setophaga coronata, finding it best distinguishable by having a nearly uniformly yellow belly, no conspicuous yellow rump or crown, less black in the feathers of the crown, and a considerably larger and stouter bill and feet.
Hybrids
In late October 1997 a large hybrid Setophaga warbler was netted in the low elevation
Distribution
It was originally only known from Kirtland's home state of Ohio.
Individuals first migrate from The Bahamas west to Florida and South Carolina in the second half of April to early May, and from there move further northwest and westwards until they reach the Mississippi River, which they then follow upstream to the mouth of the Ohio River during May. They reach their breeding grounds early in June,[23] and then leave their breeding range between August and October.[17]
Ecology
The Kirtland's warbler's summer breeding habitat is in northern Michigan. Breeding habitat is where a bird lays its eggs and raises its babies. The Kirtland's warbler only builds its nests on the ground in young jack pine forests found in Michigan and sometimes Wisconsin.
Habitat
In their winter habitat, they have been found primarily in low "coppice" habitat,[17][24][25] especially areas which have been cleared for slash-and-burn agriculture but have regrown after abandonment (98% of all records), with a preference for dense shrubbery with small openings here and there, no canopy and low ground cover. It has otherwise been found in all habitats on the islands, including, albeit uncommonly, suburban gardens and Bahamian pineyards, with the exception of high coppice which has never been clear cut -it has never been seen here. With rare exceptions this bird is almost always sighted from the ground to 3m high (98%).[17]
For breeding habitat it requires large areas of young jack pine on sandy soil. Kirtland's warblers occur in greatest numbers in large areas that have been clear cut or where a large wildfire has occurred.[13][26] For breeding they require stands of young (6 to 20 year old, 2–4 m high) jack pine trees.[17] Other common plants in this habitat are blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium), sweet fern (Comptonia peregrina), Canada mayflower (Maianthemum canadense) and various grasses. Although it was initially believed to exclusively require jack pine stands, more recent research has found that the bird will also breed in some places in young stands of red pine (Pinus resinosa) of 10 to 15 years old.[22] When the pine stands grow so tall so as to lose their lowest branches near the forest floor, the environment no longer provides sufficient cover.[13] Such stands are ideally densely stocked with young pines, but also contain small occasional patches of open areas or with sparse tree cover.[22]
Controversy
The status of the overwintering habitat has been contentious, with researchers disagreeing. Mayfield (1992, 1996) first stated that the bird inhabits the shrub layer. Lee et al. (1997) also believed that the warbler inhabits shrubs, but they concluded that the species is entirely dependent on pineyards, stating that before the advent of
Haney et al. stated that another reason that this warbler was most likely restricted to the pineyards habitat was because there was no low coppice habitat available until the arrival of the first human colonists on the islands, the Lucayans some 1,000 years ago, due to there being no mechanism that could destroy the natural high coppice of the islands.
Behaviour
Yearlings and first-time breeders explore to find new breeding grounds,
One study found that 85% of the singing males are able to attract mates.[7]
A warbler occupies a breeding territory of 2.7 to 3.4ha depending on location, but a larger wintering territory of 6.9 to 8.3ha depending on the island.[17] They construct their nests on the ground, well concealed by lowest living branches of the jack pines and other vegetation.[13][26] The nest is usually at the base of a tree, next to a down log or other structure.[citation needed] Eggs are laid in May to June.[1]
Diet
It depends heavily during overwintering on the berries of Lantana involucrata, which is a very common successional shrub a few years after agriculture has been abandoned in a particular field.[17] It is also said to eat the berries of Erithalis fruticosa[24][25] and Chiococca alba.[24] Of 331 observations of two warblers on Eleuthera in 1986, 76% were of foraging on Lantana, 8% were in Tournefortia volubilis, 4% in snowberry, 3.5% in Acacia rigens, 3.3% in Erithalis, 1.8% in Zanthoxylum fagara, and 1% Casuarina equisetifolia. Plants they were found foraging in at less than 1% were Sideroxylon salicifolium, Pithecellobium keyense, Tabebuia bahamensis and Scleria lithosperma.[17] In its summering range this species feeds on blueberries and on insects such as spittlebugs, aphids and ants.[13]
Interactions with other species
Jack pine is a species of pine with a distribution that spans almost across North America.
Without human intervention, the warblers are severely impacted by
Conservation
The Kirtland's Warbler Conservation Team is an integral part of post-delisting monitoring efforts and provides an important forum for sharing information, coordinating management efforts and ensuring that effective adaptive management occurs.
- This is according to google
Decline
As global climate changed after the ice age through the last 10 millennia or so, jack pine, and consequently also Kirtland's warbler, shifted their habitat north.[26] The cold-hardy jack pine now grows as far as north as the Northwest Territories.[31]
The Kirtland's warbler has historically always been rare, with the species first recorded quite late for a bird from the eastern USA between the 1840s to 1851, only four or five birds seen in the first two decades after, and the breeding grounds and first nest not recorded in 1903 in Michigan.[5][8][6][7][10]
It is still unclear to scientists how a species with such narrow habitat requirements was able to survive to modern times. One theory is that during the ice ages, which lasted much longer than
In 1871, fed by dry conditions, high winds and piles of
In July 1903, the
Considering the
In the 1920s, a recognised expert on this species was a
Kirtland's warbler is highly susceptible to nest parasitism by this cowbird.[30] Brown-headed cowbirds feed mostly on seeds from grasses and weeds, with some crop grains. Insects such as grasshoppers and beetles, often caught as cows and horses stir them into movement, make up about a quarter of a cowbird's diet. Development and fragmentation of forests in the eastern United States have allowed brown-headed cowbirds to greatly expand their range eastward.[35] One study from 1931 to 1971 found 59% of the warbler nests parasitised in comparison to 5% of the nests in the study area of all other bird species combined, another study found 48% from 1903 to 1949; another found 86% rate of parasitism; and a last study found 69% of the warbler nests afflicted from 1957 to 1971. In 1971 the third decennial census counted 201 singing males, whereas the 1961 census had found 501 breeding pairs, showing a 60% decrease in population over the 1960s.[30]
The first census of the species was performed in 1951, organised in part by a young Harold F. Mayfield, who would eventually spend the rest of life researching this species. 432 males were counted, half of these in just two areas where fires had raged in the 1930s. The second of what was supposed to be a decennial census program in 1961 showed an increase in population, with 502 males counted; many of these were still found at the sites of the two 1930s fires, a quarter was now resident at the site of a large fire from 1946.[32]
The population reached a low of 167 singing males in 1974,[22][30] and in 1994 only 18 square kilometres (6.9 sq mi) of suitable breeding habitat was available.[1][36]
Recovery
It was listed as endangered in the US in 1967.[37] In 1971 a recovery plan was developed. The plan entailed the management of state and federal land through clear cutting, controlled burning and planting jack pine to expand suitable nesting habitat for Kirtland's warbler, as well as having the government acquire more land for this purpose. The other components were to limit public access land during nesting season, to conduct annual censuses of the warbler population, and lastly to intensively control the cowbird population.[30]
A 1966 study found that shooting and trapping the cowbirds could reduce parasitism from 65% to 21%, and in 1972 cowbird control efforts commenced. The cowbird traps were 4 by 4 ft. and 6 ft. high with a recessed entrance hole at the top, and worked using sunflower seed bait, tape recorders playing birdsongs and decoy cowbirds which attracted more cowbirds. Cowbirds are asphyxiated in plastic bags using car exhaust fumes. Once a day during breeding season, or when the traps had collected 30 to 40 birds, the traps were serviced to destroy cowbirds. Other trapped bird species were banded and released, and some twelve cowbirds were left in the trap as decoys. Less cowbirds are caught as the season progresses, and radio-tracked cowbirds indicate that females are sedentary during the season. In the first year, 1972, 2,200 cowbirds were eliminated using a single trap, and only 6% of the warbler nests in the region were parasitised compared to 69% previously. Average clutch size in the region almost doubled. In 1973 the program was expanded to four traps, which caught 3,300 cowbirds and resulted in no parasitism that year. That same year 216 singing male warblers were recorded an increase of 9.2% from the 200 males recorded in 1972, and the first increase recorded ever. Thus the control program was considered a success, and the following year 22 cowbird traps were deployed, removing over 4,000 cowbirds across the region. Although only 167 singing male warblers were recorded in 1974, nevertheless the large number of fledglings meant the traps were effective.[30] As of 2016, the cowbird traps still capture 4,000 cowbirds a season.[38][39] Effective blue jay management involves transporting a few hundred jays a year dozens of miles away to be released.[30]
Today the habitat of Kirtland's warbler is no longer being preserved by prescribed burns as these have proved too difficult to control (a forest service employee named James Swiderski was immolated during one of these burns in 1980),
In 2004 Kirtland's warbler had been observed in Ontario[22] and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and rarely recorded in northwest Ohio, where the numbers of recorded birds are increasing.[41] Beginning in 2005 a small number have been observed in Wisconsin. In 2007 three Kirtland's warbler nests were discovered in central Wisconsin[42] and one at CFB Petawawa in Ontario,[43] providing a sign that they are recovering and expanding their range once again. The Wisconsin population continues to grow, with 53 individuals and twenty nests recorded in 2017.[44]
In the
The birds depend on The Bahamas and adjacent territories during winter; in 1998 their winter habitat was judged to be extremely widespread and it was calculated that there is enough area and habitat in the Bahamas to house a population of roughly more than 500,000 birds. The most destructive threat in the winter range are thought to be
If Haney et al. are correct in arguing that the species does not overwinter in scrub coppice habitats in The Bahamas, but instead in pineyards, and the abundance of this species is in fact limited by changes in this pineyard habitat, the conservation efforts in Michigan may be insufficient for species recovery.[1] Some Michigan locals have questioned the cost and point of the program.[40] Habitat and cowbird management cost $1 million per year as of 2003. In the 1990s this was garnered from a carbon sequestration fund, but that source of financing has been terminated.[1] Management costs were estimated at $1.5 to 2 million per year in 2008,[38] however, the payments by timber companies for the sale of jack pine for manufacturing paper and wood pulp offsets some costs,[37] and the species brings bird-watching tourists to the region which is an economic boon to local businesses.[37][38] Survival of this species will require management that will need to continue in perpetuity. An endowment fund to ensure a permanent funding source for the species has been discussed as an option.[38]
There is a Kirtland's warbler festival in Roscommon, Michigan, which is sponsored in part by Kirtland Community College (which is named in honour of the bird). The festival is held annually during the first full weekend of June.[46][47][48]
Canada
Until 2007 Kirtland's warblers had never been known to have bred in Canada,
The government of Ontario published a recovery strategy for the Kirtland's warbler in 2016.
Delisting
Prior to being delisted from the
Protected areas
It has been regularly recorded in the following
- Abaco National Park, Abaco, The Bahamas.[7]
- Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada.[11]
- Hartwick Pines State Park, Michigan, USA.[48]
- Huron-Manistee National Forests, Michigan, USA.[48]
- Lucayan National Park, Grand Bahama, The Bahamas.[7]
- Point Pelee National Park, Essex County, Ontario, Canada.[13]
- Rand Nature Centre (as Pinelands Wilderness Sanctuary), Grand Bahama, The Bahamas.[7]
- Tawas Point State Park, Michigan, USA.[48]
See also
References
- ^ . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
- ^ "NatureServe Explorer 2.0". explorer.natureserve.org. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wood, Norman A. (March 1904). "Discovery of the Breeding Area of the Kirtland's Warbler". Bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club. 5 (1): 3–13. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
- ^ JSTOR 4070140. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiner, Tim (2010). "Kirtland's warbler". ON Nature. Toronto: Ontario Nature. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
- ^ .
- ^ JSTOR 1370262. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
- ^ . Retrieved 5 March 2020.
- ^ .
- ^ S2CID 216413282. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
- ^ a b c "Setophaga kirtlandii (Kirtland's Warbler)". Avibase - The World Bird Database. Denis Lepage. 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
- ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Kirtland's Warbler". Species at risk. Queen's Printer for Ontario. 9 May 2019. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
- ^ S2CID 87300526.
- ISBN 978-1-4200-6444-5.
- ^ Oiseaux.net. "Paruline orangée - Protonotaria citrea - Prothonotary Warbler". www.oiseaux.net. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
- ^ S2CID 82287796. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2020-02-15. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
- Wilson Bulletin. 18 (2): 47–60.
- ^ Faanes, Craig A.; Haney, J. Christopher (May 1989). "First Record of Kirtland's Warbler from the Dominican Republic, West Indies, and Additional Bird Observations". Caribbean Journal of Science. 25 (1–2): 30–35. Archived from the original on 20 August 2022. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
- ^ a b Radamaker, Kurt; Radamaker, Cindy (2002). "A recent record of the Kirtland's warbler in Florida" (PDF). Florida Field Naturalist. 30 (3): 94–96. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
- ^ Mayfield, Harold F (1992). Kirtland’s Warbler. In: Poole A, Stettenheim P, Gill F (editors) (1992). The Birds of North America, No. 19. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Academy of Natural Sciences / Washington, District of Columbia: The American Ornithologists' Union
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Kirtland's Warbler government response statement". Queen's Printer for Ontario, Government of Ontario. 12 September 2017. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
- ^ a b c Allen, Joel Asaph (October 1904). "Kirtland's Warbler". The Auk. 21 (4): 506–507. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
- ^ S2CID 86413835. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
- ^ S2CID 86823341.
- ^ a b c d e f Mayfield, Harold F. (1988). "Where Were Kirtland's Warblers During the Last Ice Age?" (PDF). Wilson Bulletin. 100 (4): 659–660. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-935909-81-4. Retrieved 7 March 2020.)
{{cite conference}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ a b "Kirtland's Warblers in Ontario have fledged 27 young since 2007". BirdwatchingDaily.com. Madavor Media, LLC. 2 October 2018. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
- ^ Ray, Nicolas; Adams, Jonathan M. (2001). "A GIS-based Vegetation Map of the World at the Last Glacial Maximum (25,000–15,000 BP)". Internet Archaeology. 11.
- ^ a b c d e f g Shake, William F.; Mattsson, James P. (1975). "3 Years of Cowbird Control an Effort to Save the Kirtlands Warbler". Jack Pine Warbler. 53 (2): 48–53. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
- . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Mayfield, Harold F. (1993). "Kirtland's Warblers benefit from large forest tracts" (PDF). The Wilson Bulletin. 105 (2): 351–353. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
- ^ Karikehalli, Shweta (7 September 2018). "The Surprising Connection Between the Kirtland's Warbler and the Birding World's Most Famous Murderer". Audubon News. Audubon Society. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
- ^ Warnes, Kathy. "The Murderer and the Museum Curator - Nathan Leopold and Kirtland's Warbler". History? Because it's Here!. Weebly. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
- ^ "Brown-headed Cowbird Life History". All About Birds. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
- ^ "Kirtland's Warbler". Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
- ^ a b c d Flesher, John (8 October 2019). "Once nearly extinct, Kirtland's warbler coming off endangered list". The Detroit News. Traverse City. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
- ^ a b c d Flesher, John (21 September 2008). "Endangered warbler needs help to survive". SF Gate. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
- ^ a b c d e Lavey, Kathleen (3 July 2016). "Back from the Brink of Extinction". The Detroit Free Press. Detroit. p. 11.
- ^ a b Radio Lab Weighing Good Intentions
- ^ Ohio Ornithological Society (2004): Annotated Ohio state checklist Archived 2004-07-18 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ United States Fish and Wildlife Service (2007): Kirtland's Warbler 2007 Nesting Season Summary Archived 2017-05-15 at the Wayback Machine. Version of 2007-DEC-10. Retrieved 2008-FEB-19.
- ^ CFB Petawawa (2007): Canada's Rarest Nesting Bird found at CFB Petawawa[permanent dead link]. Version of 2007-Nov-01. Retrieved 2008-FEB-19.
- ^ "Kirtland's warblers find Wisconsin a good place to nest". FWS.gov. US Fish and Wildlife Service. 16 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
From only 11 Kirtland's and three nests found in Adams County in 2007 to 53 individuals and 20 total nests among Adams, Marinette and Bayfield counties in 2017, the population has grown and geographically expanded in our decade of conservation work
- ^ USFWS: Kirtland's Warbler Census Results: 1951–2008 Archived 2011-01-02 at the Wayback Machine. Fws.gov (2013-01-03). Retrieved on 2013-04-03.
- ^ https://graylingchamber.com/event/kirtlands-warbler-festival/ Archived 2019-06-19 at the Wayback Machine, KIRTLAND’S WARBLER FESTIVAL 2019
- ^ Kirtland Warbler Festival
- ^ a b c d "Huron-Manistee National Forests - Kirtland's Warbler and Jack Pine Wildlife Tours". United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
- ^ a b c d Speirs, Doris Huestis (October 1984). "The First Breeding Record of Kirtland's Warbler in Ontario" (PDF). Ontario Birds. 2 (2): 80–84. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
- ^ a b Del Giudice, Nicholas (13 September 2018). "Reforesting Ontario's Simcoe County for Kirtland's Warbler". Loose Leaf. American Forests. Archived from the original on 26 September 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
- ^ a b https://www.fws.gov/Midwest/endangered/birds/Kirtland/index.html Archived 2019-06-19 at the Wayback Machine, Kirtland's warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii) Status: Delisted
- ^ https://www.fws.gov/Midwest/endangered/birds/Kirtland/Kirtland's[permanent dead link] Warbler Press Release - FINAL with logos.pdf
- ^ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Species Profile for Kirtland's Warbler Archived 2009-09-04 at the Wayback Machine. Ecos.fws.gov. Retrieved on 2013-04-03.
Further reading
- Clench, Mary Heimerdinger (1973). "The Fall Migration Route of Kirtland's Warbler". Wilson Bulletin 85 (4): 417–428.
- Cooper NW, Hallworth MT, Marra PP (2017). "Light-level geolocation reveals wintering distribution, migration routes, and primary stopover locations of an endangered long-distance migratory songbird". Journal of Avian Biology. 48 (2): 209–219. doi:10.1111/jav.01096.)
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - Mayfield, Harold (1960). "The Kirtland's Warbler". Cranbrook Institute of Science Bulletin (40): 1–242.
- Rapai, William J. (2012). The Kirtland's Warbler: The Story of a Bird's Fight Against Extinction and the People Who Saved It. Ann Arbor: ISBN 978-0-472-02806-1.
External links
- "How a tiny, rare songbird flies 3,400 miles and comes home to Michigan". MLive.com. Retrieved 2018-05-09.
- http://www.uptownupdate.com/2015/05/rare-bird-alights-at-montrose-harbor.html
- Kirtland's warbler at All About Birds
- Kirtland's warbler, Michigan Department of Natural Resources
- The Nature Conservancy Songbirds: Kirtland's warbler
- Endangered species program, Kirtland's warbler, US Fish and Wildlife Service Archived 2010-05-27 at the Wayback Machine
- Stamps[usurped]