North American Warblers | ROLLING HARBOUR ABACO

Olive-capped Warbler, Abaco

ABACO’S 5 ‘PERMANENT RESIDENT’ WARBLERS & A NEW WARBLER ID GUIDE

There are 37 Warbler species (Parulidae) recorded for Abaco. There is considerable scope for confusion between many of them. For a start, by no means all have the helpful word ‘warbler’ in their name. Secondly a great many of the species are to a greater or lesser extent yellow, with sub-variables for gender, age and season. It’s easy to get in muddle. A good place to start ID is with the warblers that are on Abaco all year round. Only 5 species are permanent residents on Abaco and the Cays: Bahama Warbler, Bahama Yellowthroat, Olive-capped Warbler, Pine warbler and Yellow Warbler. I have used images of these to illustrate this post.

Yellow Warbler (f) Abaco

The rest are mostly winter residents, with some being transient visitors passing through on their migration routes. Some are ‘everyday’ birds; some are unusual; and a few are extremely hard to find, the Kirtland’s warbler being the rarest and therefore the most prized sighting of all. I will be returning to the Kirtland’s in more detail in due course.

Pine Warbler, Abaco

At the bottom of this post is a complete list of the Abaco warbler species, with Bahamas bird authority Tony White’s excellent codes indicating (a) when they may be seen; and (b) the likelihood of seeing a particular species (from 1 – 5). First however, news of a great resource for aiding warbler ID, produced by The Warbler Guide. Click on the blue link below to open a pdf with illustrative views of warbler species from several angles, spread of 8 pages. These are the warblers of North America, but you’ll find that almost all the Abaco warblers are featured.

THE WARBLER GUIDE QUICK-FINDERS

SAMPLE PAGE

Warbler Guide Sample Page

Bahama Warbler, Abaco

THE 37 WARBLER SPECIES RECORDED FOR ABACO

WOOD-WARBLERS	PARULIDAE	CODE
Ovenbird	Seiurus aurocapilla	WR 1
Worm-eating Warbler	Helmitheros vermivorum	WR 2
Louisiana Waterthrush	Parkesia motacilla	WR 3
Northern Waterthrush	Parkesia noveboracensis	WR 1
Blue-winged Warbler	Vermivora cyanoptera	WR 3
Black-and-white Warbler	Mniotilta varia	WR 2
Prothonotary Warbler	Protonotaria citrea	TR 3
Swainson’s Warbler	Limnothlypis swainsonii	WR 4
Tennessee Warbler	Oreothlypis peregrina	TR 4
Orange-crowned Warbler	Oreothlypis celata	TR 4
Nashville Warbler	Oreothlypis ruficapilla	WR 4
Connecticut Warbler	Oporonis agilis	TR 4
Kentucky Warbler	Geothlypis formosa	TR 4
Bahama Yellowthroat	Geothlypis rostrata	PR B 1
Common Yellowthroat	Geothlypis trichas	WR 1
Hooded Warbler	Setophaga citrina	WR 3
American Redstart	Setophaga ruticilla	WR 1
Kirtland’s Warbler	Setophaga kirtlandii	WR 4
Cape May Warbler	Setophaga tigrina	WR 1
Northern Parula	Setophaga americana	WR 1
Magnolia Warbler	Setophaga magnolia	WR 3
Bay-breasted Warbler	Setophaga castanea	TR 4
Blackburnian Warbler	Setophaga fusca	TR 4
Yellow Warbler	Setophaga petechia	PR B 1
Chestnut-sided Warbler	Setophaga pensylvanica	TR 4
Blackpoll Warbler	Setophaga striata	TR 3
Black-throated Blue Warbler	Setophaga caerulescens	WR 2
Palm Warbler	Setophaga palmarum	WR 1
Olive-capped Warbler	Setophaga pityophila	PR B 1
Pine Warbler	Setophaga pinus	PR B 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler	Setophaga coronata	WR 2
Yellow-throated Warbler	Setophaga dominica	WR 1
Bahama Warbler	Setophaga flavescens	PR B 1
Prairie Warbler	Setophaga discolor	WR 1
Black-throated Green Warbler	Setophaga virens	WR 3
Wilson’s Warbler	Cardellina pusilla	TR 4
Yellow-breasted Chat	Icteria virens	TR 4

Bahama Yellowthroat, Abaco

Image credits: Bruce Hallett, Tom Reed, Woody Bracey, Charlie Skinner; PDF from ‘The Warbler Guide”

RESEARCH INTO THE FLIGHT CALLS OF MIGRATING WARBLERS

has found a way to investigate the nocturnal migrations of warblers using spectrograms. Many of the warblers featured in the project are found on Abaco and will be familiar to the more discerning birder – though I admit that ID of members of this large family of little yellowy birds, even in broad daylight, remains a blind spot for me (and I suspect I am not the only one). Click the chart below for a clearer view. A downloadable / printable version is available via the link given below. It is also worth visiting the page to compare the brief audio cheeps of the Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler and Black-throated Green Warbler and their respective spectrograms

“These spectrograms are a visual representation of the very brief flight calls made by North American warblers during their nocturnal migrations. Some of these call notes sound almost identical to our ears, but spectrograms show minute differences between them. Scientists can compare spectrograms of night recordings to spectrograms of known species to identify nocturnal migrants in total darkness. Andrew Farnsworth, a scientist in the Cornell Lab’s Conservation Science program, developed this “Rosetta Stone” in 2006 in collaboration with Michael Lanzone, Cellular Tracking Technologies, William R. Evans, and Michael O’Brien. It covers all 48 warbler species of the U.S. and Canada (including Grace’s and Red-faced warblers, not shown), and is a major tool in our Acoustic Monitoring Project”

Click chart to enlarge

Putting Sound to Work for Conservation: “Our staff will use results from the Rosetta Stone… to “train” computers to identify the sounds of warblers and other nocturnally migrating birds, as well as other species including whales and forest elephants”

Working Toward a Bird Migration Forecast: “A new grant from the National Science Foundation will fund BirdCast, a project that will combine bird observations (both sightings and sound recordings) with weather models and terrain data to forecast migrations. The results of the predictions will help scientists understand migratory behavior and may aid decisions about wind turbine placement and other questions about environmental hazards to birds”

To see the complete article CLICK LOGO===>>>

To learn more about BirdCast and the Acoustic Monitoring Project from the original article CLICK LINK===>>> Cornell Chronicle