Wilson's Warbler Part III

BirdNote^®

Welcome Back, Wilson’s Warbler

Written by Bob Sundstrom
 
This is BirdNote!
 Back in September, BirdNote began following a tiny Wilson’s Warbler as it migrated south from the Pacific Northwest to the tropics. We visited the warbler again in December, on its wintering grounds on a shade-grown coffee farm in Belize. [Call notes of Wilson’s Warbler]
 As April arrives, the sprightly yellow bird with the black cap is migrating northward. Flying at night, it may cover hundreds of miles a night with a good tailwind. Under the cover of darkness, the warbler avoids encounters with hawks. And the night-time atmosphere is less turbulent. The warbler spends days foraging on the spring flush of insects – often several days in one area – restoring the energy needed for the long journey north. It may migrate in loose association with small numbers of other Neotropical migrants such as vireos, flycatchers, and other warblers.
 [Wilson’s Warbler song]  Males typically precede females northward. When they arrive at their breeding grounds, they immediately begin to sing on nesting territories to attract mates. [Wilson’s Warbler song] Often they return to the very same patch of low shrubby habitat they have occupied in previous years. [Wilson’s Warbler song]
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Audio of Wilson’s Warbler provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.  Call recorded by C. Hanks.  Song recorded by T.G. Sander.
Producer:  John Kessler
Executive Producer:  Chris Peterson
© 2010 Tune In to Nature.org           April 2010

ID#  040307WIWA3-4KPLU  WIWA-03