September's Featured Wisconsin Endangered Species: Kirtland's Warbler

Why did I pick the Kirtland’s Warbler (Dendroica Kirtlandii) for my September Wisconsin species? Actually, my daughter did – I let her choose because her birthday is in September. She says it was love at first sight – she thinks Kirtland’s is cute because of its diminutive size and bright, contrasting colors. It was also her idea that I model my drawing on this photo of the warbler http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/site/images/bird_id/kirtland%27s-warbler-lg.gif , with a bubble coming out of its beak, saying LOST. Brilliant!

What interests me about this warbler?
1. Although there are no records of Kirtland’s having nested in Wisconsin before http://www.jsonline.com/sports/outdoors/47268492.html, this species is federally endangered and there is suitable habitat in Wisconsin. Its reproductive success in Wisconsin in Adams and Marinette County and presence in other Wisconsin counties is the result of an intense process of aiding a species in decline - an inspiring story of hope and perseverance. In 2008 the Kirtland’s Warbler, for the first time since the 1940s, has nested outside of Michigan, producing at least 10 nestlings in Wisconsin. See here for past and present accounts of Kirlands in Wisconsin http://www.fws.gov/midwest/GreenBay/ This, thanks to a many faceted effort -- the difficult and dedicated research, monitoring and management of this species by a variety of people in a variety of places.
Government, scientists, industry, a public foundation and lay people have come together to help save this species. The Plum Creek Timber Company allowed government agencies onto their land, the U.S. Department of Agriculture traps the cowbirds (300 were trapped where the warblers successfully nested), and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service monitor nests, trap, band and run field trips http://www.fws.gov/news/NewsReleases/showNews.cfm?newsId=5BB8F06F-03E9-2DCC-38C152B14D3029F1 and http://www.fws.gov/midwest/GreenBay/kiwa/2009Summary.html. The Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin http://www.wisconservation.org/ (see and hear here – you’ll follow a volunteer’s discovery of a new Kirtland’s) also helped, particularly with volunteer coordination and organization of statewide surveys. Many volunteer birders helped survey warblers. In fact, one documented the first nesting Kirtland’s in Wisconsin.
And, of course it would be impossible for Kirlands to recover in Wisconsin if they weren’t doing well in Michigan’s northern Lower and Upper peninsula,s from where they are spreading and the Bahamas, their primary wintering place. The Kirtland's Warbler Recovery Team http://warbler.kirtland.edu/ gives a sense of the geographical vastness and complexity of the effort. It is made up of people from the Michigan DNR, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Bahamas Department of Agriculture, and The International Institute of Tropical Forestry, just to name some of the partners.
2. The story of the Kirtland’s Warbler’s decline is a convergence of two circumstances - its reliance on a now shrinking habitat to breed, a young jack pine forest between 4 and 20 years old, and the spreading range of its foe, the cowbird http://dnr.wi.gov/wnrmag/2009/04/warbler.htm .
Suitable habitat is crucial. Warblers make their nests on the ground, hidden by the low-hanging, closely packed branches which only young jack pines provide. And jack pines can only regenerate with fire, when the cones release their seeds that then sprout on the now fertile ground. As the trees age, their lower branches self-prune, no longer protecting the Kirtland's warblers nest.
Along with this range contraction came the proliferation of the brown-headed cowbird in its remaining habitat. It traditionally followed buffalo herds on the Great Plains, feeding on insects disturbed by buffalos' hooves. Being peripatetic, the cowbird laid eggs in other birds’ nests, leaving these unwitting adoptive parents to care for their young. When logging opened up land in the Midwest, cowbirds migrated too, and began laying eggs in warbler’s nests. Cowbirds hatch earlier and are larger and more aggressive than warblers, so the warbler nestlings don’t stand much of a chance.
3. Another interesting thing about the Kirtland’s Warbler is that once it was discovered, in the United States in 1850, it took awhile before anyone found out where it lived and bred http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12145_12202-32591--,00.html . Its breeding range wasn’t discovered until over 50 years later, in 1903, when a nest was found in jack pine habitat. And nearly 30 years later, in 1879, Kirtland’s was discovered to over winter in the Bahamas, and later the Turks, Caicos and Hispaniola Islands. Just think how much there is yet to discover in our own Wisconsin backyards, about species we still know little about!
4. What are people doing to help Kirtland’s now? Cowbirds continue to be trapped and Kirtland’s banded and monitored. The vegetation where they breed will be analyzed to determine ideal breeding habitat. And 134,000 acres of jack pine will continue to be managed on a 50-year rotation, yielding at least 38,000 acres of young jack pine in which Kirtland's can nest. Wildlife managers will revisit known habitat and search out new, and manage accordingly. Census work in jack pine stands in Burnett, Douglas, Washburn, Bayfield, Vilas, Oneida, Marinette, Jackson and Adams counties will search out singing male Kirtland's warblers and potential new breeding sites, so conservation efforts can expand. http://dnr.wi.gov/wnrmag/2009/04/warbler.htm http://www.fws.gov/news/NewsReleases/showNews.cfm?newsId=5BB8F06F-03E9-2DCC-38C152B14D3029F1

5. And, finally, here’s what you can do to help the Kirtland’s Warbler. Pick up some general bird identification skills at Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s web site http://www.allaboutbirds.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1053 Learn more about Kirtland’s and become a volunteer yourself! Donate to the organizations cited above! Tell your friends and family about Kirtland’s fascinating life history and road to recovery, and how people like you made it happen! Help change the world, one species at a time!!