Five & Counting: Wisconsin Kirtland's Warbler Nests For Fifth Consecutive Year in the State

Wisconsin Kirtland's Warbler Update *

(* = 2011 Kirtland's Warbler Nesting Success in Wisconsin; photo courtesy of Joel Trick)

Go to the following web site if you'd like to find out more about the 2011 Kirtland's Warbler nesting success for the current breeding season:

http://www.fws.gov/midwest/greenbay/

Given the amazing comeback of this federally endangered species, it's safe to suggest (with tongue firmly planted in tongue of cheek) that the Kirtland's wins the Comeback Bird of the Decade for its rebound to more than 1,800 males among the nesters occurring in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ontario (where in the latter place one location appears to annually host a breeding population).

For Wisconsin, the above the fold headline is already exclaimed above:
It's the FIFTH year in a row that Kirtland's has nested in the Bucky Badger state.

That's an unprecedented development for the species, which, as you may know, was thought until its discovery as a nester in Wisconsin in 2007 to ONLY
annually breed in Michigan.

There it was previously considered to be an endemic, with the entire population migrating to the Bahamas for the "winter."

Lastly:

Plenty of thanks should be extended to volunteers who monitor the federally endangered Kirtland's Warbler.

It's their efforts that continue to daily monitor the Kirtland's in Wisconsin as you read this item.....with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Joel Trick leading the crew.
Kudos to Joel Trick for helping an endangered species widen its territory as new habitat was found by Mr. & Mrs. Kirtland's arriving from the Bahamas each May (ostensbily, Jack Pine groves with an assist from Pinus cousin rubra, Red Pine, where the species is also found in WI)