WARBLERS: A REWARD OF BIRDWATCHING

Blackburnian Warbler - Photo courtesy June Ladner (2016)

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It is early morning. Clouds hang low in the sky. Calm now. The wind that yesterday blew so fiercely from the north has blown itself away.

Come with me. I want to show you something.

There! In the top of that oak, the highest branch to the right, where the leaves meet the sky. A movement. Don’t you see? Look! Where the leaves flutter and end. Don’t look away or you’ll lose it. Keep your eye on the moving leaves and raise your binoculars and wait for the bird to come out into the open.

Now. There he is! That pattern! It’s incredible. No, don’t reach for a field guide. Just watch. See that brilliant orange throat? The juxtaposition of orange and black on the face? The neat black stripes along the white under-sides? The white wingpatch on black wings? The black streaked back?

Watch now. See how busy he is! See how he peers and probes? Explores and devours! His world is in the top of the trees. His life is in the heart of the buds. Gone now, into the densest foliage.

We may not see him again, not now, not today, maybe not again this spring. It may have been the only look that spring allows of a male Blackburnian Warbler.

If I could, I would show the world a Blackburnian Warbler, the fire-brand, the torch-bird, the bird that could move a cynic. The world, and you, dear reader, would understand me better. You would cease to question the dawn risings and find it not in the least masochistic to court stiff necks and thrown-out backs in the cause of warbler watching.

Warblers are tiny, brightly colored and arrestingly patterned. They are primarily insect-eaters. The move about constantly, using a small, needle-pointed bill to ply their trade. Some live in the treetops, some in the lower branches. Some favor the swamps and bottomlands. Some are ground dwellers.

They, or one of them, has been the “turn-on” for legions of birders. At the height of the spring migration, nothing quickens the pulse more delightfully than a mixed flock of foraging warblers. They are difficult to see, but a typical adult male warbler poses no problem in identification.

It takes years to see them all. Even veteran birders who know where, when, and how to look miss some each spring.

Forty warbler species are known to occur in Mississippi. Of them, the orange-crowned, yellow-rumped, and Palm are regularly found as winter residents. The Pine Warbler and the Common Yellowthroat are permanent residents.

The majority of warblers move south in the fall, north in the spring. Some stay in our southern climate to nest but the majority of them are transients, here today and gone tomorrow, and so too, the chances to see them.

With the peak weekend of the spring migration coming up, a highly motivated and tenacious watcher could see a score of the birds which fan the ardent fires of the birder.

A further run-down on the status of our warblers. Along with the two mentioned above, the Prothonotary and Swainson’s warblers, the Northern Parula, the Yellow-throated and Prairie Warblers, the Louisiana Waterthrush, Kentucky Warbler, Yellow breasted Chat, Hooded Warbler and American Redstart all breed on or near the coast.

Of those remaining, one is of extreme rarity (Bachman’s Warbler) and two (Townsend’s and Black-throated Gray Warblers) are only casual western wanderers in fall. Two others, (Connecticut and Mourning Warblers) are very scarce in the state.

What it comes down to is the opportunity to see some of the 35 warbler species including the magnificent Blackburnian, that may be found gleaning through the highest leaves or mincing through last year’s leaves on the forest floor as migration reaches its late April crescendo.

This article was first published in April, 1982