Golden-winged Warbler Vermivora chrysoptera
Sterling Forest, New York, May 2006 and May 2008

The beautiful Golden-winged Warbler is a long-distance migrant between the New World tropics (it winters from central Guatemala southward into the northwestern tip of South America) and eastern North America where it breeds mainly in shrubby habitats, often with scattered trees and at the edges of woods.

The Golden-winged Warbler once thrived by colonizing abandoned farmlands that had been allowed to return to forest, particularly in the early phases of succession when bushes and small trees dominated the landscape. The species has though been undergoing a rapid decline since the 1980s, particularly in the southern parts of its range: according to the IUCN website (which now lists the species as Near-Threatened) “local declines correlate with advancing succession and reforestation, and the invasive range expansion of Blue-winged Warbler Vermivora pinus. Other possible causes of population declines are loss of wintering habitat (especially forest edge and open woodland), nest parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbird Molothrus ater, and hybridisation with Blue-winged Warbler“. [Also see eg http://www.kent.ac.uk/anthropology/dice/scb2002/abstracts/Wednesday/cbone.html]

These photos were taken on a visit to Sterling Forest with Mike in May 2008 - for an account of our trip go to Sterling Birding at Sterling Forest. On a personal note it may be of interest to 10,000 Birds visitors to know that the first Golden-winged Warbler I ever saw was one which over-wintered in a UK supermarket car-park in 1989! The bird was found by a local birder on his way to buy stamps at the supermarket - a Tesco’s - when he saw the warbler feeding in the ornamental shrubbery near to where he’d parked his car. The sighting triggered one of the largest twitches ever in the UK - I was one of about 2000 people who went to see it over the next few days…

Photographs copyright Charlie Moores