My Life’s Birds: #336
September 2, 1994 – Christian Co, Mo – When you look at a map of the United States the states of North Carolina, where I live now, and southern Missouri, where I grew up, are roughly on the same latitude. Seeing this you might infer that the species of birds in those two locales are similar. And with a few obvious exceptions, southern Missouri having a distinct southwest flavor with Roadrunners and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, and North Carolina having a considerable shoreline with its attendant birds, you’d be right. Most of the birds a person runs into on an average morning out, or those attracted to a feeding station, are exactly the same.
But there are still some interesting differences. For instance, consider the bipolar nature of the Yellow-throated Warbler.
Back in the Missouri Ozarks, where fast moving crystal clear creeks and deep hollows are the norm, the Yellow-throated Warbler will hike itself up to the top of the tallest Sycamore tree where it sings its sweet slurry spring song. In fact, I used to associate this species almost exclusively with the white-trunked behemoths, where I’d curse the exceptionally small bird for hiding amidst the exceptionally large leaves of Platanus occidentalis, incidentally one of my very favorite trees.
But here in North Carolina, while there is no shortage of appropriate Sycamore trees (though none of the girth that I used to see back home), our Yellow-throats prefer the stately pine, where instead of hiding behind dinner plate sized leaves they flit amongst clumps of Loblolly Pine needles where, it should be stated, they are equally hard to find. But just as in Missouri, the very tops of the trees ring with the sound of singing Yellow-throated Warblers, especially in very early spring when they’re often the first of the resident warblers to arrive in both places. And equally impatient to move on in fall, as when I saw my first.
So two different places and two completely different vegetative associations, but the same great bird.
photo from wikipedia
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Here in NJ, we have a population nesting in the pines down in the southwestern portion of the state Belleplain State Forest for example). We also have a population nesting in the sycamores along the Delaware River. Love that bird.
Were there ever taxonomic studies conducted on those two "eco-types"? Do they mix? Do warblers that were born in pines breed in sycamores or not? This sound so very interesting…
In the SW Missouri Ozarks region, I can find them nesting at around 900 ft elevation along the clear, sycamore lined Bull Creek, and then drive up the road a short distance to the historical town of Pine Ridge, at 1500 ft elevation at find them foragely in the pines and presumably nesting there, too. I suspect that the two populations rarely cross paths, but don't know. According to Missouri's Breeding Bird Atlas, they were once called the "Sycamore" Warbler in the Mississippi River Valley (Widmann 1907), http://mdc.mo.gov/nathis/birds/birdatlas/0400346.htm
@Patrick- Me too. If there's a cleaner looking warbler, I don't know it.
@Jochen- Good question, I have no idea. YTWA has two subspecies, but I think the second refers to the resident population in Florida and the Bahamas. I don't know if there's any real distinction between birds that prefer pines and those that prefer sycamores.
@Greg- Funny that they segregate themselves even in Missouri, there aren't enough sycamores in NC for them to do the same around here I think.
You see, and the fact that they segregate themselves even at such a small level is what I find so intriguing!