Mourning Warbler - A Late Starter

                                        Mourning Warbler Male   [Jim Carroll Photo]

The Mourning Warbler (Geothlypis philadelphia) is one of our latest warbler species to arrive in the spring.  They are an uncommon summer resident which breeds across the province.  They are more numerous everywhere than in the south-central lowland around Grand Lake and on the east coast.  They can be found from late May to late September.  Mourning Warblers prefer heavy tangled vegetation in forest openings and along forest edges.  They like ferns, raspberries and broadleaf shrub tangles.

                                             Mourning Warbler Male   [Jim Carroll Photo]

The Mourning Warbler, a member of the Parulidae family, is an intermediately sized warbler (13 cm long).  In breeding plumage the male has a bluish-gray hood and a variable dark patch on the breast.  The olive upperparts and yellow underparts make it outstanding in appearance.  There may be dark lores (patch in front of the eye) and the legs are pinkish.  Rarely there may be a thin white eyering.  The bill is pinkish with a dusky upper mandible.

The female in breeding plumage is similar to the male except she has a light gray hood and no or little black on the breast.  Her throat may be buffy or whitish and she may have a thin broken white eyering.  Like all warblers the plumage changes in the fall.  The males look similar to spring females except their heads and upperparts are all olive or brownish with a yellow or whitish throat.

                                     Mourning Warbler Female   [Marbeth Wilson Photo]

Other warbler species that one would need to differentiate this species from are MacGillivray's Warbler,  Connecticut Warbler and the Common Yellowthroat.  For us here in New Brunswick the Common Yellowthroat would be the most likely species one would have to watch out for.  But they have a longer tail, a smaller dark bill and they don't have the gray crown.  MacGillivray's are not seen here and Connecticut Warblers are very rare.  Connecticut Warblers have a distinctive complete white eyering and a shorter tail projection.   Connecticuts also walk and the Mourning Warbler hops to move itself along, a neat distinguishing feature.  

                       Mourning Warbler Male Showing Black Lores  [Carmella Melanson Photo]

The summer range of the Mourning Warbler includes Atlantic Canada, across the southern half of Quebec and Ontario and into the prairies north to touch a bit on northern British Columbia and the Northwest Territories.  It also is found south of the Great Lakes to about southern Ohio and Michigan and New England.  Their winter range is the southern part of Central America and the northwestern part of South America.  No wonder it takes them a long time to get here in the spring!

The song of the Mourning Warbler is not a mournful song as the name would suggest.  It is a happy, 'cheery' melody.  Their cheery cheery cheery chorry chorry is what led me to find my first ever member of this species.  It is an easy song to remember and describes this beautiful warbler.  So, why the name?  Well, the Mourning Warbler was named by Alexander Wilson, a famous American ornithologist, in 1810  because of the gray hood and the black markings on the male's breast.  He must have thought it looked like it was in mourning.  The 'philidelphia' part of the name came from the place where he first saw it.  Another ornithologist, Forbush, in 1929 took exception to the name given by Wilson and stated that the bird is active and happy and its song is a 'paean of joy'.  I agree with Forbush but unfortunately the name given by Wilson has stuck.  

The Mourning Warbler nests in dense undergrowth in forest clearings, usually near wet areas.  This is a vegetation type we don't often wander in so no wonder we don't often find their nests.  The nest, a well concealed open cup,  is on or near the ground and is made of fibres and leaves and lined with grass and hair.  Three to five creamy white eggs spotted with brown are laid and incubated by the female for 12 days.  Both adults will use the broken wing display to try to detract intruders from the nest.  After the young birds hatch, the female eats the egg shells.  Mourning Warblers feed on insects and spiders which they glean from tree and bush foliage. 

The Mourning Warbler population numbers are listed as stable.  This is one species that has benefitted from humankind's disruption of the forest.  It likes the bushy tangles that often are found where the trees have been cleared.  It also benefits from the broken continuity of the forest that often follows forest operations.  We have so much of that I am surprised we don't see more of this species in New Brunswick.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

                                        Yellow-bellied Flycatcher  [Jim Carroll Photo]

The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (Empidonax flaviventris) is a common New Brunswick summer resident.  It migrates here in May and leaves in the fall.  It is a bird of the northern boreal forest and can be found throughout the province.  It likes dense spruce woods and dense understory with brushy vegetation.  

First let's review flycatcher classification from a New Brunswick perspective.  Knowing where the species fits and what are its close relatives helps with identification.  More broadly speaking, there are 3 major categories of flycatchers: Tyrant Flycatchers, Old World Flycatchers and Silky Flycatchers.  The Old World Flycatchers act like the New World Flycatchers but they are not closely related.  The Silky Flycatchers are flycatchers of Middle America and are different from the Tyrant Flycatchers, which is the group that this post deals with.  

The Tyrant Flycatchers, family Tyrannidae, include the Empidonax and Myiarchus flycatchers as well as the Phoebes and the Kingbirds.  The Empidonax and the Myiarchus flycatchers present some of the most difficult identification challenges in birding.  For identification one must pay attention to the overall shape, head shape, bill structure, primary projection, and wing feather formula.  This group eats insects with a few eating small fruits during migration or on the wintering grounds.  Most sit on a perch and fly out to grab an insect.  Some return to the perch to eat the insect; some to another perch; some hover before grabbing the prey; some fly out from the perch to grab the insect on the ground.  Differences in foraging methods can be used to help identify the species.  

The plumage of males and females is usually the same in Tyrant Flycatchers.  This family is very large and is exclusively found in the New World.  Although found in most of the New World, there are by far the most member species in the tropics.  Of 425 member species altogether, 45 species are found in North America; 35 of these breed here and 10 are vagrants.  Flycatchers are threatened species caused by loss of habitat, fragmentation of habitat and habitat degradation.  

                                            Yellow-bellied Flycatcher  [Jim Carroll Photo]

So what flycatchers do we have in New Brunswick and how does the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher fit in?  The Tyrant Flycatchers we have are grouped as follows:

Peeweees - Olive-sided Flycatcher - Contopus cooperi

                    Eastern Wood-Pewee - Contopus virens

Empids - Yellow-bellied Flycatcher - Empidonax flaviventris

                Alder Flycatcher - Empidonax alnorum

                Willow Flycatcher - Empidonax traillii

                Least Flycatcher - Empidonax minimus

Phoebes - Eastern Phoebe - Sayornis phoebe

                Say's Phoebe - Sayornis saya

Myiarchus Flycatchers - Ash-throated Flycatcher - Myiarchus cinerascens

                                        Great Crested Flycatcher - Myiarchus crinitus

Kingbirds - Eastern Kingbird - Tyrannus tyrannus

                   Western Kingbird - Tyrannus verticalis

                    Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - Tyrannus forficatus

                    Fork-tailed Flycatcher - Tyrannus savana 

There are many more members of these groups in North America.  I have included most of the species we find here in summer with a few vagrants that often show up here.  

The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher is a small bird, 14 cm long.  It is mostly yellow all over. It appears short-tailed and big headed.  The head has a round crown (some species have a flat crown).  It has a moderate primary projection (in the folded wing, the distance from the end of the primary feathers to the tip of the tertial feathers).  The bill is broad-based with a pale yellow-orange to pink lower mandible.  The adult bird is mostly olive above and yellow below.  There is an olive green wash over the sides of the breast.  The bold eyering is even all around and yellowish in colour.  It can be slightly thicker behind the eye.  The wings are black with bright white wing bars.  Similar species include the Acadian Flycatcher and the Least Flycatcher.  The Acadian Flycatcher does not occur here but the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher is smaller with a shorter primary projection and smaller bill.  The olive wash on the breast also helps identify it as a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.  In the fall when the birds' feathers are more worn, the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher can be mistaken for the Least Flycatcher but the throat of the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher is a more blended colour and the mandible is uniformly pale.  

Flycatchers are not noted for their song.  This is due to the anatomy of the syrinx.  The call of the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher is a sharp, whistled chiu.  The song is a che-bunk like the Least Flycatcher but softer and lower in tone.  It is not as 'snappy' as the Least's song, according to David Sibley.  

Yellow-bellied Flycatchers occur in summer on their breeding grounds all across Canada from Newfoundland and the Maritimes to Yukon, but not including most of British Columbia and southern Alberta and Saskatchewan.  In the fall they migrate back to their wintering grounds in eastern Mexico and Panama using the overland route.  They do not fly over the Gulf of Mexico.  

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher nest in the boreal forest close to the ground.  The nest is usually built within 2 feet of the ground usually on top of a hillock or stump or among rootlets or fallen trees.  The nest is made of twigs, rootlets, weeds, and moss and lined with thin rootlets, grass and fresh leaves.  Three to five white eggs spotted with brown are laid and incubated by the female.  

The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher species was first described by an American, Spencer Fullerton Baird, in 1843.  By some sources the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher is described as the easiest of the Empidonax flycatchers to identify.  I would add that this group is very difficult!  One very interesting fact about this species is that it winters in semi-open habitats including coffee plantations and that shade-grown coffee plantations have higher densities of this species than do sun-grown coffee plantations.  This also is true for other avian species.  Do your research on where coffee is grown and support shade-grown coffee products in order to save our avian species.    

Black-necked Stilt - Nemesis Bird

                                            Black-necked Stilt  [Mark Dennis Photo]

On May 22, 2022 birders spotted 2 Black-necked Stilts at Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia.  This is a rare species to show up anywhere in Atlantic Canada.  When they do appear, birders 'flock' from near and far to see them.  Where did they come from and where are they going?

Stilts and Avocets are members of the Recurvirostridae family.  Stilts are officially listed as 'accidental' in New Brunswick and Avocets as 'casual', according to the Birds of New Brunswick:  An Annotated List.  There have been few records over the years of Black-necked Stilts in New Brunswick.  There was one from the mouth of the St. Croix River in 1862; one from Maces Bay in 1880; three near Woodstock in 1982; and one from Jacquet River in 2000.  

The reason I call this species my 'nemesis bird' is that I have been hoping for most of my birding life to see this species.  Trips to western North America can easily produce sightings but I have not been in the right place at the right time.  The Jacquet River specimen is the closest I have come.  A group from Fredericton drove up to see the bird on 6 June, 2000 and we missed the bird by 15 minutes!  It was there 15 minutes before we arrived and was gone when we scanned the area.  We drove 4 hours each way only to miss the bird!  Such is the makings of birding stories.

I have watched many American Avocets over the years from singles to small flocks at once hoping to find a Black-necked Stilt with them, which often happens.   No luck.  I keep trying and hopefully will be lucky enough to get my binoculars trained on a beautiful Black-necked Stilt someday.

                                                            Black-necked Stilt  [Internet Photo]

The Black-necked Stilt is a unique-looking species.  It is 33 cm long with a 6.4 cm bill and the tarsus is 11.3 cm long.  It is boldly pied with black above and white below.  It has long pink or sometimes red legs and there is a white spot above and behind the eye which shows well on the black crown and face.  The bill is long, needle-like and black in colour.  The female is duller with brownish tones.  Note the black on the upper/dorsal neck which is important to note in order to distinguish the Black-necked Stilt from the much rarer Black-winged Stilt which very rarely shows up in North America from Eurasia.  The American Avocet shares the same habitat as the Black-necked Stilt but it is bulkier with an orange or gray head and much more white on it.  

The Black-necked Stilt is a graceful wader that looks very elegant.  In fact, one wonders how it manages those long legs.  It is highly social and feeds in water picking insects and other invertebrates from the surface.  It feeds by sight so you don't often see it probing the mud like some shorebirds do.  You might see large numbers of them feeding in good feeding areas on their normal range.  They will aggressively mob both aerial and terrestrial predators when threatened, even humans.  I think I would like to be mobbed by a group of Black-necked Stilts, especially if I had my camera in hand!  This species is noisy on the breeding grounds and less so during migration or in winter.  Their voice is a loud kek, kek, kek, kek.  In flight you would see the long pink legs trailing out behind and the plumage a bold black and white.  The wings are pointed and the wing beats are often halting.  

The Black-necked Stilt breeding range includes Washington State, Alberta, Oklahoma, and Virginia south throughout lowland areas to northern South America and the West Indies.  They winter in California, the Gulf coast and southern Florida south to the tropics.  Vagrants can be found in southern Canada and Bermuda.  

Black-necked Stilts breed in loose colonies in shallow, marshy lakes and coastal salt ponds.  Non-breeders move along with the breeding birds.  The nest is a shallow depression in the ground lined with grass and shell fragments.  Three to five yellow or buff eggs spotted with brown are incubated by both adults for 22 to 25 days.  The young, when they get their feathers, are grizzled-looking, paler than the adults with buff-edged feathers and greyish pink legs.  Stilts feed in both fresh and salt water on tadpoles, mollusks, aquatic insects, snails, small fish, flying insects and seeds.  

The Black-necked Stilt species was first described in 1776 by Philipp Ludwig Statius Muller, a German zoologist.  Black-necked Stilts can swim but they usually do not.  It is interesting to note that Black-necked Stilts have the second longest legs in proportion to their bodies of any avian species.  Can you guess which species has the longest? ... flamingos.