Warbler Guy: Now that "fall" southbound migration has begun, where's a GREAT web site to check rare bird sightings in the area where I live? Where I plan to bird soon on my upcoming birding vacation?

Stacey, great question, and here's a new web site where you can read rare bird reports corresponding to any USA state (to which you might travel for birding and wish to know which "cool" bird species
are potential "hot" draws for you and other birders to sleuth out:

http://birding.aba.org

Jeff Gordon, the American Birding Association's (ABA) Executive Director, noted the importance of this new web site in the following linked article that goes to the ABA's web site where an ongoing update of rare bird sightings is present at:

http://blog.aba.org/2019/08/rare-bird-alert-august-16-2019.html

Regards, Daniel Edelstein

Birding Guide Since The 1980s

Certified Wildlife Biologist Asc.

Avian Biologist

&

Community College Birding Instructor

warblerwatch.com

Warbler Guy, where can I see autumn warbler migration on radar? Judging & planning potential good fall warbler watching days is possible by looking at online radar web sites?

Yes, Charlene (in Dubuque, IA), there's a superb composite radar site I recommend for birders: http://www.woodcreeper.com

Here, the current article posts relate to last spring's migration patterns, BUT on the
right side of the home page, look for the department heading "BIRDAR Network."

This listing of radar sites will help you get current information related to this summer and fall's migration dyanamics. So, for example, if you're wondering whether tomorrow is a likely heavy migration of incoming warblers through the Pheasant Branch Creek Conservancy (a superb Middleton, WI (Madison suburb) warbler "magnet trap" nature preserve/park with miles of hiking and biking trails within 15 minutes of the University of Wisconsin campus), then look at one or more of the sites posted under the "BIRDAR Network" area at the woodcreeper.com site. 

Wisconsin birders, alone, will be treated to their own Wisconsin-centric radar view of the southern portion of the Badger state (see graphic here, BELOW). Interpreting the color code meanings is another story for a different article here (or maybe one of my WarblerWatch followers wishes to pose a question to the infamous Warbler Guy, whomever that may be (?) ).

Note the woodcreeper.com site hosts many oThere's a chapter more of information that I could explain about monitoring radar sites to assist your birding efforts, but I don't have time now.

Instead, it's time to leave the Great Indoors, escaping with my binos that are cocked and ready to again view a couple of nearby juvenile Cooper's Hawk that I wish to currently go enjoy at dawn. That's when their calling behavior peaks. And with a pitch that initially resulted in head scratching. But then I listened more carefully, grabbed my long-term memory of the base root of an adult Cooper's typical staccato pattern. Result: daily Cooper's Hawk viewing fun.....and a nice substitute while I wait for the southbound warbler march to begin (i.e., I'll be in WI 8/30 - 9/4/12 to enjoy that region's warbler migration.)

Which bird field guides feature range maps that show non- and breeding territory for species?

Not many. Perhaps none, if you're considering only the most common ones among birders. 

So, if not none, then which one? 

Here's the only title that (I know) features range maps depicting non-breeding and breeding range areas for many orders of birds:

Neotropical Migratory Birds: Natural History, Distribution, and Population Change.  1995. Richard M. DeGraaf and John H. Rappole. Comstock Publishing.

Why do I cherish the above title? Because, for example, if you wish to know the destination of "our" nesting wood-warbler family members that perform neotropical migration (i.e., obligate
long-distance migration), then this resource helps. 

I can look at p. 431 to see where in S. America BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER migrate to after the breeding season.

Other best-selling bird field guides typically merely feature a map that denotes no more than Mexico and northward within N. America (i.e., Central America and S. America are absent).

Ergo, true obligate, long-distance migrants such as the BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER are not accounted for year-round in most field guides' maps.

Warbler Guy, do the new AOU bird name changes include any for North American wood-warblers?

No, Carrie (in Madison, WI), there's no wood-warbler name changes in the 53rd Supplement to the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) Check-list of North American Birds . . . butthere's some other interesting changes that birders may wish to know.

Feel free to Read All About it at:http://blog.aba.org/2012/07/new-aou-check-list-changes-2012.html

If you wish to save time and skip the study hall time, then here's the less-than-big-news highlights: 1. First, as background, it should be noted that AOU and the name changes is anannual action performed by the American Ornithologists' Union (thus, AOU) andthis year's recent action creates the 53rd Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of NorthAmerican Birds.

2. As for the name changes, they relate to a

a) split of the Xantus's Murrelet into two species;and

b) a shifting of the falcon and parrot orders to new positions on the check-list.

There's many other scientific name changes related to genera, but I won't bore you with those details, though they are present at the above web site link, if you wish to visit it.The one that I think is interesting for our NBB area — given the resident presence of our urbane House Finch and its close relative, the Purple Finch that also is a year-round resident in the NBB area — relates to how these two species(and the Cassin's Finch) are NO longer in the Carpodacus genus.....they are now separated from the Eurasian Rosefinches and these three finch species have beenplaced in the genus Haemorhous, which is name of an old finch genus.

So, if you're still following me, in a nutshell: It's hello Haemorhous and good-bye Carpodacus.

Regards, Daniel Edelstein

www.warblerwatch.com

http://warblerwatch.blogspot.com

Warbler Guy, what’s being done to help declining populations of Golden-winged Warbler?

Victor (in Chicago), one wildlife management technique currently employed to help create suitable breeding habitat for the Golden-winged Warbler (and other species that, likewise, prefer young, pioneer, second-growth vegetational habitats) originates from funding provided by such groups as The Ruffed Grouse Society, Wildlife Management Institute, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the American Bird Conservancy. 

Interested in promoting young forest management as a means to ensure the Golden-winged Warbler maintains its current breeding range in the upper Midwest, these groups have provided funds to public agencies (e.g., Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources) (DNR) that have wildlife biologists that, in turn, coordinate educational workshops for landowners interested in conserving the presence of their local avifauna species (e.g., Golden-winged Warbler). 

This kind of effort goes beyond Wisconsin, as my readings tell me one or more of the aforementioned groups is also helping fund other conservation efforts and management plans that seek to preserve various bird species’ populations, such as Ruffed Grouse that also often prefer to nest in similar habitat utilized by Golden-winged Warbler. 

As for my luck in finding Golden-winged Warbler recently, a fleeting glimpse with a transient in Door County a few weeks ago is a fine memory, thanks to my friend and wildlife biologist Paul Regnier who first spotted a foraging male. 

I say “lucky” because I never consider this species to be common or abundant. Traipsing through various Wisconsin warbler-watching locations through the years has always resulted in no more than five or 10 detections of this species annually. 

A rare vagrant on the West Coast to the Pt. Reyes National Seashore area also occurs, though I’m usually tardy chasing it, thereby swinging and missing at the pitches I see on the local North Bay Birds listserv within the Marin County (SF Bay Area) location where I live (Novato, a northern Marin Co. city).  

Warbler Guy, which warbler may disperse &/or migrate by July? Which eastern warbler species is a likely West Coast vagrant?

Heather (in Seattle) one good candidate as an answer to your questions is the Tennessee Warbler (photo shown here).

In the USA's East and Midwest where this species is typically seen, its early dispersal away from natal/nesting areas is common. Many upper Midwest states have August banding records of Tennessee Warbler individuals away from their nesting grounds. 

But migration patterns may vary from one year to the next. That's because annual numbers for Tennessee Warbler often correlate with the the intensity of the summer season's spruce budworm output (that is a cyclical phenomenon in the boreal forest habitat where many breed). 

Interestingly, Heather, some females arrive on northern breeding grounds in the spring already pregnant due to mating that occurs during daytime layovers in migration. In non-breeding season habitat, Tennessee Warbler is often seen eating nectar and fruit. 

For me, the autumn in northern California where I live includes spotting an occasional Tennessee on a cloudy or foggy day amid small refuge patches of non-native Monterey Cypress within a west Marin County national park, Point Reyes National Seashore. That's because this species is one of the most typical vagrant eastern wood-warbler species to appear in the West.

(Photo by Corey Finger)

By contrast, in the spring, during my annual spring jaunt to the Midwest, I'm often sweating by noon while watching the same species in northern deciduous hardwood habitat. There, it’s a common transient through Door County, a northern Wisconsin environ that hosts 16 to 18 nesting warbler species as the farthest southern terminus expression of boreal forest in the lower 48 USA states.

Warbler Guy, where are the most different kinds of warblers found? How many types or species of warblers exist? Are all warblers migratory or do some stay “close to home”...?

New World wood-warblers (that are not closely related to the various Old World warblers in the Eastern Hemisphere (e.g., Europe, Asia) are often identified to number as 112-115 species, occurring among 24-26 genera. The centers (or “epicenters”) of their breeding areas occur in eastern North America, the West Indies, Mexico and Central America, and Andean South America. The majority of northern-latitude breeding species migrate, but many island and tropical species are sedentary. Many of these latter species remain close to their birthing areas or perform short-distance, post-breeding altitudinal/elevation migrations. As for myself, I often see 20-30 wood-warbler species during early May when I return to homecoming birding forays in the Midwest (and, concurrently, attend the annual Wisconsin Society For Ornithology conference). This year, I was lucky to visit Wisconsin again on another week-long June jaunt similar areas in Door County, but achieved merely a single digit wood-warbler total. Likewise, my birding efforts in southern Wisconsin on my recent visit provided challenging warbler conditions, with Milwaukee County nearly devoid of warbler detections, except for probable nesting species such as American Redstart, Mourning Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, and Yellow Warbler. In contrast, my n. CA residency, yields more warbler species during the breeding season — a result that surprises many people because the West is thought to host far fewer warbler species. For example, in Marin County (Bay Area) where I live, I often detect at least eight warbler species annually and, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains (near Yuba Pass and/or amid the Gold Lakes country off of Highway 49 near Bassetts), I sometimes successfully sleuth out nine warbler species.