Tennessee Warbler, Nectar Thief

BirdNote®
Tennessee Warbler, Nectar Thief
Written by Conor Gearin

This is BirdNote.

    [Bumblebee buzz and birdsong]

Many flowers roll out the red carpet for desired visitors like hummingbirds and bumblebees with bright colors and petals that act as landing pads.

But flowers are sometimes victims of nectar thieves – species that bypass the flower’s intended route to nectar without picking up any pollen.

    [Tennessee Warbler song]

Tennessee Warblers might not look like crafty robbers. They’re tiny yellowish songbirds with a white stripe over their eyes. But they specialize in hacking into flowers. With their short, sharp bills, they tap a hole into the flower’s base and enjoy an easy meal as nectar drips out.

    [Tennessee Warbler song]

Tennessee Warblers do most of their nectar drinking in tropical forests on their wintering grounds. During the breeding season in North America, insects are their most important food source.

In fact, these warblers may help protect trees from spruce budworm. When there’s a budworm outbreak, Tennessee Warblers eat almost nothing else. So these nectar thieves give back to their ecosystems, in their own way.

For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.

Tom and Annalee Luhman celebrate BirdNote with today's show. They believe BirdNote stories are a magical doorway to nature and all of its wonders.

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Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Bumblebee (Bombus) ML125255 recorded by Mike Andersen, and Tennessee Warbler ML534676 recorded by Wil Hershberger.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote February 2024
Narrator: Michael Stein

ID# TEWA-01-2024-02-21        TEWA-01

References:
https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/tenwar/cur/introduction
https://www.boerenlandvogels.nl/sites/default/files/Venier%20and%20Holm…
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34442286/