Kirtland's warbler

This species was first recorded by Europeans relatively late for a bird from eastern North America. The first specimen was shot at sea somewhere between the Abaco Islands of The Bahamas and Cuba in mid-October 1841 by the ornithologist Samuel Cabot III. However, the specimen was unrecognized as a new species in the private collection of Cabot's father, Boston merchant Samuel Cabot Jr., until it made its way to the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in the 1860s. Ten years later the holotype, a juvenile male, was shot on Jared Potter Kirtland's farm near Cleveland, Ohio, in mid-May 1851. It was used to formally describe the species as Sylvicola kirtlandii by Spencer Fullerton Baird in 1852. Baird first attributed the collection to Charles Pease (Kirtland's son-in-law) in his 1852 description, In 1858 Baird moved the species, still then only known from his single specimen, to the genus Dendroica, By 1865 only four individuals were known to have been collected. Baird lists the male specimen from the Cabot collection, the holotype, a first female specimen shot in 1860 near Cleveland and preserved by R. K. Winslow, and a fourth (which Winslow mentioned had also been killed near Cleveland but had not been preserved). ==Description==

Male Kirtland's warblers have bluish-grey upper body parts, with dark streaks on the back, yellow bellies, and dark streaks on the flanks and sides. It has black lores (cheeks) and a distinctive, large and conspicuous broken white eye ring, which it only shares with Setophaga coronata. it is the largest of the numerous warblers formerly classified in the genus Dendroica and is now the largest of the 35 or so species in the currently-accepted Setophaga genus. Its mating song is a loud chip-chip-chip-too-too-weet-weet often sung from the top of a snag (dead tree) or northern pin oak (Quercus ellipsoidalis) clump. This song can be heard over 400m away in good conditions. The eggs are a "delicate" pinkish white when fresh, fading to a dull white after a time. There are a few scattered sprinkles in various shades of brown In The Bahamas it may be misidentified with S. dominica flavescens. Hybrids In late October 1997 a large hybrid Setophaga warbler was netted in the low elevation dry scrublands of the southernmost Dominican Republic, which based on morphology (plumage colour and anatomical measurements of size) and geography was most likely a hybrid between S. kirtlandii and S. fusca. ==Distribution==

It was originally only known from Kirtland's home state of Ohio. Overwintering birds have been collected and sighted a number of times in Florida. It has been recorded as a rare accidental on Bermuda and Jamaica, It has also been observed in the summer in Québec, although it is not known to breed there. on May 14, 2010, on the shores of Lake Erie where migrant warblers occasionally appear in spring, perhaps before crossing into Ontario. Individuals first migrate from The Bahamas west to Florida and South Carolina in the second half of April to early May, and from there move further northwest and westwards until they reach the Mississippi River, which they then follow upstream to the mouth of the Ohio River during May. They reach their breeding grounds early in June, and then leave their breeding range between August and October. ==Breeding range and habitat==

The Kirtland's warbler has a highly restricted breeding range in the Great Lakes region, breeding in jack pine (Pinus banksiana) forests in northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ontario. Its typical breeding habitat consists of large stands of young jack pine, about 4–25 years old and 5–20 feet (1.5–6.1 m) tall, with dense clumps of trees interspersed with small grassy openings, sedges, ferns, and low shrubs, usually on sandy glacial outwash plains. Although the species is strongly associated with young jack pine habitat, researchers have reported that Kirtland's warblers have also bred in young red pine-dominated plantations in central Wisconsin where habitat structure approximates that of young jack pine stands. Habitat In their winter habitat, they have been found primarily in low "coppice" habitat, especially areas which have been cleared for slash-and-burn agriculture but have regrown after abandonment (98% of all records), with a preference for dense shrubbery with small openings here and there, no canopy and low ground cover. It has otherwise been found in all habitats on the islands, including, albeit uncommonly, suburban gardens and Bahamian pineyards, with the exception of high coppice which has never been clear cut -it has never been seen here. With rare exceptions this bird is almost always sighted from the ground to 3m high (98%). For breeding they require stands of young (6 to 20 year old, 2–4 m high) jack pine trees. Behaviour Yearlings and first-time breeders explore to find new breeding grounds, One study found that 85% of the singing males are able to attract mates. Pollen analysis shows that the jack pine was almost non-existent between the Appalachian Mountains and the Great Plains during this period, with the possible exception of tiny isolated relict populations, which presents a mystery as to where the Kirtland's warbler survived during this period. Mayfield suggests that the species was restricted during this age to the southeastern Atlantic coast, which might explain its modern overwintering range in the Bahamas as opposed to Mexico, as well as why it appears to be closer related to Caribbean warbler species. The jack pine and the warbler likely colonized the Midwest around 10,000 years ago. ==Conservation==

The Kirtland's Warbler Conservation Team is an integral part of post-delisting monitoring efforts and provides an important forum for sharing information, coordinating management efforts and ensuring that effective adaptive management occurs. Decline As global climate changed after the ice age through the last 10 millennia or so, jack pine, and consequently also Kirtland's warbler, shifted their habitat north. The Kirtland's warbler has historically always been rare, with the species first recorded quite late for a bird from the eastern USA between the 1840s to 1851, only four or five birds seen in the first two decades after, and the breeding grounds and first nest not recorded in 1903 in Michigan. In 1871, fed by dry conditions, high winds and piles of logging slash, a massive forest fire swept through lower Michigan, with another largefire in The Thumb of the Lower Peninsula, and a further huge forest fire on the Wisconsin-Michigan border and yet another around Windsor, Ontario. In 1881 another massive conflagration burned down the forests in The Thumb, which eliminated the last of the original white pine woodlands of Michigan. This period coincides with the era where most Kirtland's warbler specimens were collected, reflecting a possible peak in population size. However ornithologists were then unaware where it bred, and almost all these birds were taken in The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos or along the migration route. While no warblers were seen or killed in The Bahamas by the collector Henry Bryant in the 1850s and 1860s (despite his extensive searches), The following year Edward Arnold travelled to a nearby locality in June and found the third nest ever, with four eggs. He was able to capture both the male and female on the nest simply with his hands. Kirtland's warbler is highly susceptible to nest parasitism by this cowbird. One study from 1931 to 1971 found 59% of the warbler nests parasitised in comparison to 5% of the nests in the study area of all other bird species combined, another study found 48% from 1903 to 1949; another found 86% rate of parasitism; and a last study found 69% of the warbler nests afflicted from 1957 to 1971. In 1971 the third decennial census counted 201 singing males, whereas the 1961 census had found 501 breeding pairs, showing a 60% decrease in population over the 1960s. Recovery It was listed as endangered in the US in 1967. In 1971 a recovery plan was developed. The plan entailed the management of state and federal land through clear cutting, controlled burning and planting jack pine to expand suitable nesting habitat for Kirtland's warbler, as well as having the government acquire more land for this purpose. The other components were to limit public access land during nesting season, to conduct annual censuses of the warbler population, and lastly to intensively control the cowbird population. Effective blue jay management involves transporting a few hundred jays a year dozens of miles away to be released. and the species is entirely dependent on staggered harvests by the timber industry for its survival. Some 76,000 hectares are reserved for this purpose on the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, of which some 15,000 are maintained as young jack pine breeding habitat for the bird. Beginning in 2005 a small number have been observed in Wisconsin. In 2007 three Kirtland's warbler nests were discovered in central Wisconsin and one at CFB Petawawa in Ontario, providing a sign that they are recovering and expanding their range once again. The Wisconsin population continues to grow, with 53 individuals and twenty nests recorded in 2017. In the IUCN Red List the Kirtland's warbler was classified as vulnerable to extinction since 1994, but was listed as near threatened in 2005 due to its recovery. four years earlier they had numbered just 2500–3000. Since the recovery plan began in the 1970s, the numbers of Kirtland's warbler have steadily risen, with an estimated population of 5,000 in 2016. Canada Until 2007 Kirtland's warblers had never been known to have bred in Canada, The first bird was collected in the country in 1900 when a specimen was secured on Toronto Island. of which a sighting in the area had earlier been reported. the Kirtland's warbler had been listed as "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Since delisting, continued monitoring is being used to ensure that the species remains secure. Protected areas It has been regularly recorded in the following protected areas: • Abaco National Park, Abaco, The Bahamas. • Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. • Huron-Manistee National Forests, Michigan, USA. • Lucayan National Park, Grand Bahama, The Bahamas. • Point Pelee National Park, Essex County, Ontario, Canada. • Rand Nature Centre (as Pinelands Wilderness Sanctuary), Grand Bahama, The Bahamas. • Tawas Point State Park, Michigan, USA. ==See also==