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New World Warblers

The books are listed in order of publication date with the most recent at the top.

Warbler species

There are about 100 species of New World Warblers (aka Wood Warblers). This group includes Warblers, Parulas, the American Redstart, the Ovenbird, Waterthrushes, Yellowthroats and Whitestarts.

These birds are restricted to the Americas and are not related to the Old World Warblers or the Australian Warblers.

North American Warbler Fold-Out Guide

Scott Whittle, Tom Stephenson

2016

"This is a handy, pocket-sized foldout reference to the 45 most commonly seen North American warblers. Photos include side-on, underside, and 45-degree views. Drawings of undertail patterns provide at-a-glance comparisons between species. Icons depict generalized color patterns for each bird and where the species is usually found--on the ground, low in trees or vegetation, midstory, or toward the top of trees. Succinct text describes key identification features for each species. A QR code takes you to a range of common vocalizations for each species."

Warblers in Your Pocket: A Guide to the Wood-Warblers of the Upper Midwest

Dana Gardner, Holly Carver

University of Iowa Press

2016

"This newest addition to Iowa's popular series of laminated guides – the twenty-eighth in the series – illustrates the thirty-eight species of warblers that occur in the Upper Midwest states of Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. For each species, artist Dana Gardner provides length, range, and habitat; he illustrates male, female, and immature birds where plumage varies; and he includes birds similar to warblers such as kinglets and vireos."

Golden-winged Warbler Ecology, Conservation, and Habitat Management

Editors: Henry M. Streby, David E. Andersen, David A. Buehler

American Ornithological Society / CRC Press

2016

"Golden-winged Warblers (Vermivora chrysoptera) are migratory songbirds that breed in temperate North America, primarily in the Great Lakes region with remnant populations throughout the Appalachian Mountains, and winter in Central and northern South America. Their breeding range has contracted dramatically in the Appalachian Mountains and many populations have dramatically declined, likely due to habitat loss, competition and interbreeding with Blue-winged Warblers (Vermivora pinus), andglobal climate change.. As a result of population declines in much of the eastern portion of their breeding range, Golden-winged Warblers are listed as endangered or threatened in 10 U.S. states and in Canada and have been petitioned for protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. This book compiles extensive, current research on Golden-winged Warblers and summarizes what is known and identifies many remaining unknowns, providing a wealth of peer-reviewed science on which future research and listing decisions can be based."

52 Small Birds

Richard Weeks

2014

"52 Small Birds describes the eight year quest of a bird artist to photograph and paint the 52 breeding warblers of the United States. Comfortably retired and enjoying his passion as an artist, the author was in his 60s when he discovered the joys and challenges of birding. His desire—perhaps more rightly described as a fixation—to document warblers led to 11 trips to eight different states, which are described in narration, journal sketches, photographs, and paintings. This narrative relates how the process of searching for, photographing, and painting birds both enhanced and deepened the author’s connection to the natural world."

Sex and Age Differences in Site Fidelity, Food Resource Tracking, and Body Condition of Wintering Kirtland's Warblers (Setophaga kirtlandii) in the Bahamas

Joseph M. Wunderle Jr., Patricia K. Lebow, Jennifer D. White, Dave Currie and David N. Ewert

American Ornithologists' Union

2014

From the abstract: "Distribution of nonbreeding migrant birds in relation to variation in food availability has been hypothesized to result from the interaction of dominance hierarchies and variable movement responses, which together may have sex- and age-specific consequences. We predicted that site fidelity, movements, and abundance of Kirtland's Warblers (Setophaga kirtlandii) wintering on the island of Eleuthera in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas (hereafter "The Bahamas") would be correlated with food abundance but vary by sex and age. We found that the species' food resources (fruits and arthropods) typically declined during a winter but varied between winters (years) and study sites. Rainfall is a driver of variation in fruit abundance, as indicated by an information-theoretic evaluation of abiotic factors that influence fruit abundance. Despite variation in food availability, the proportions of fruits and arthropods in the diet of Kirtland's Warblers (88% of 90 fecal samples with both) varied little within or between winters or with sex or age class. Overwinter site persistence was low and variable among study sites (average = 43%, range: 11–67%); as predicted, site fidelity within and between winters differed by sex (males > females) and age class (adults > juveniles). However, knowledge of only sex and age was insufficient to predict site persistence in a model-selection framework in the absence of other contributing variables from the confidence set of models (i.e., food resources and/or habitat structure) for two model sets. These analyses further indicated that measures of food resources, either foliage arthropods or fruits, were reliable positive predictors of site fidelity, given the respective confidence set of models."

The Warbler Guide

Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle

2013

"Warblers are among the most challenging birds to identify. They exhibit an array of seasonal plumages and have distinctive yet oft-confused calls and songs. The Warbler Guide enables you to quickly identify any of the 56 species of warblers in the United States and Canada. This groundbreaking guide features more than 1,000 stunning color photos, extensive species accounts with multiple viewing angles, and an entirely new system of vocalization analysis that helps you effectively learn songs and calls."

The Kirtland's Warbler: The Story of a Bird's Fight Against Extinction and the People Who Saved It

William Rappai

2013

"In The Kirtland's Warbler, William Rapai explores the bird's fascinating natural history as well as the complex and evolving relationships between the warbler, its environment, its human protectors, and state and federal policies that today threaten to eradicate decades of work done on the species' behalf. Beginning with an account of the warbler's discovery in the mid-nineteenth century and ornithologists' desperate hunt for information on the elusive new species, the book goes on to examine the dramatic events that quickly led to the warbler's precarious status and its eventual emergence as a lightning rod for controversy. The Kirtland's warbler is often described as a "bird of fire" for its preference for nesting in areas cleared by wildfire. But it also warrants the name for the passion it ignites in humans. Both tragic and uplifting, the story of this intriguing bird is a stirring example of how strong leadership, vision, commitment, sustained effort, and cooperation can come together to protect our natural world."

Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird

Katie Fallon

2011

"Taking the reader from the mountains of Appalachia to a coffee plantation near Bogotá, Colombia, this investigation into the plight of the cerulean warbler – a tiny migratory songbird – describes its struggle to survive in ever-shrinking bands of suitable habitat. This elusive creature – a favorite among bird watchers and the fastest-declining warbler species in the United States – has lost three percent of its total population each year since 1966. This precipitous decline means that today there are 80 percent fewer ceruleans than 40 years ago, and their numbers continue to drop because of threats including deforestation, global warming, and mountaintop-removal coal mining. With scientific rigor and a sense of wonder, Fallon charts their path across more than 2000 miles and shows how the fate of a creature weighing less than an ounce is vitally linked to that of our own."

The Warbler Road

Merrill Gilfillan

2010

"In these twenty-six short essays, Merrill Gilfillan records his encounters with wood warblers as they flit through North American landscapes on their migratory paths. With precision, appetite, and a touch of whimsy, he sketches the tiny birds in their surroundings, perfecting the art of what he elsewhere calls "alfresco writing." Throughout, The Warbler Road testifies to birding as a meditative, even votive dedication and a fundamental mode of attention to the world: "When I walk out with binoculars in May and September, it is often the fly fisherman in Yeats's poem I have in mind as I move along the path. We are both out to discover and authenticate the morning, to break the glaze of habitude and mark, for an hour or so, the weave and fine points of the season and its day-in-place."

Golden Wings & Hairy Toes

Todd Mcleish

2007

"This book profiles fourteen of New England’s most rare and endangered flora and fauna—mammals, birds, insects, plants, and fish—by following the biologists who are researching, monitoring, and protecting them. Each chapter includes a first-person account of the author’s experience with these experts, as well as details about the species’ life history, threats, and conservation strategies. McLeish traps bats in Vermont and lynx in Maine, gets attacked by marauding birds in Massachusetts, and observes the metamorphosis of dragonflies in Rhode Island. He visits historical cemeteries to see New England’s rarest plant, tracks sturgeon in the Connecticut River, and observes a parade of what may be the rarest mammal on earth, the North Atlantic right whale, in Cape Cod Bay. The book’s title comes from the name of one of the birds in the book, the golden-winged warbler, and the unusual characteristic used to distinguish the rare Indiana bat from its common cousins, its hairy toes. McLeish, a longtime wildlife advocate and essayist, has a gift for communicating scientific information in an interesting and accessible way. His goal in this book—to make an emotional connection to a variety of fascinating animals and plants—is successfully conveyed to the reader, who comes away amazed by the complexity of individual species and the ecosystems necessary for their survival."

Field Guide to Warblers

Donald Stokes, Lillian Q. Stokes

Little Brown and Company

2004

A 172 page identification guide to North American Warblers.

Warblers of the Great Lakes Region and Eastern North America

Chris G Earley

2003

"Describes the 42 species of Warbler found in the Great Lakes region and Eastern North America. Species are presented in taxonomic order to show how they relate to each other. The text includes information on biological classification, distinctive markings, seasonal plumage changes, song description and behaviour. and explains why they are so difficult to spot. Comparison pages are also provided which group similar-looking birds on a single spread for quick reference. Includes many colour photographs."

Chasing Warblers

Vera Thornton and Bob Thornton

University of Texas Press

1999

"An account of the authors travels locating and photographing the 52 species of North American wood warblers. They describe where and how they photographed each species and describe some of the human characters they met on their journeys."

The Wood Warblers: An Introductory Guide

Barth Schorre and John Rappole

University of Texas Press

1998

"A beginner's pictorial guide to identification of 49 wood warbler species of the US and Canada. After information on distribution, diminishing numbers, migration, and attracting warblers, a gallery of birds offers colour photos for each entry showing males and females, and describe characteristics, range, and abundance."

Warblers

Jon L Dunn and Kimball L Garrett

Houghton Mifflin

1997

"A guide to the 60 species of North American Warblers. Each species is described in detail, from its field marks to its mating habits and plumage. Precise range maps show where each species can be seen at different times of the year."

New World Warblers: An Identification Guide

Warblers of the Americas: An Identification Guide

Jon Curson

Christopher Helm

1994

"The guide provides an identification introduction to the American Warblers (family Parulinae) which are distributed through North, Central and South America. The introduction is followed by individual species text describing identification, range voice, habitat and behaviour. There are 36 colour plates, "wing-formulae" drawings and distribution maps for each species."

American Warblers: An Ecological and Behavioural Perspective

D.H. Morse

1990

"A monograph on the New World Warblers. The author reviews their evolutionary history and their dispersal through North and South America, their life cycle, both in breeding and migration, as well as aspects of their foraging behaviour, habitat selection, mating, reproduction, plumage, rare and tropical species, and diversity."

An Analysis of Physical, Physiological and Optical Aspects of Avian Coloration with Emphasis on Wood-Warblers

Edward H Burtt

American Ornithologists' Union

1986

A 122 page study.

Bachman's Warbler: A Species in Peril

Paul B. Hamel

1986

Wood Warblers' World

Hal H. Harrison

1984

Kirtland's Warbler: The Natural History of an Endangered Species

Lawrence H. Walkinshaw

1983

The Warblers Of America

Editor: Ludlow Griscom and Alexander Sprunt Jr.

Illustrations: John Henry Dick

Doubleday

Revised edition

1979

The Golden-Cheeked Warbler

Warren M. Pulich

1976

Natural History Of The Swainson's Warbler

Brooke Meanley

Bureau Of Sport Fisheries And Wildlife

US Department Of The Interior

1971

From the introduction:

The Swainson's Warbler (Limnothlypis swainsonii) is one of the least known of songbirds in the southern United States and one that is widely sought by bird enthusiasts. It is unusually appealing to the student of birds because it is hard to find, because its forbidding habitat is challenging, and because it is associated with the Audubon-Bachman period of North American ornithology. The difficulty of becoming well acquainted with the Swainson's Warbler has been noted by a number of field ornithologists. In the Alabama River bottoms, Arthur H. Howell of the U.S. Biological Survey reported it as confined to the deep swamps and riverbottom woods where canebrakes occur, and re- marked that its secretive habits conceal it from all but the most persistent observers. In the big swamps above Mobile in May 1911, July 1913, and May 1914 he heard at least nine of these warblers, but because of the impenetrable vegetation was unable to collect any. Maurice G. Brooks, Professor of Wildlife Management at West Virginia University, and his coworker W. C. Legg found this elusive warbler extremely difficult to observe in the dense shadows of the "rhododendron hells" of the Alleghenies: With their neutral brown coloration, their rapid movements, and their ap- parent liking for the centers of the thickets, they seemed to blend imperceptibly into their surroundings.

Kirtland's Warbler

Harold Mayfield

1960

The Warblers Of North America

Editor: Ludlow Griscom and Alexander Sprunt Jr.

Devin-Adair

1957

Life Histories Of North American Wood Warblers: Order Passeriformes

Arthur Cleveland Bent

1953

Subsequently reprinted in two volumes.

The Warblers Of North American

Frank M. Chapman

D. Appleton & Company

1907

Includes 24 colour plates. From the preface:

The warblers have been described as "our most beautiful, most abundant, and least known birds." The knowledge that at certain seasons our woods, and even the trees of our larger city parks are thronged with an innumerable host of birds, the brilliancy of whose plumage rivals that of many tropical species, comes to the bird student with the force of a surprising discovery. One never forgets one's first Warbler! Highly migratory, the extended journeys of Warblers are nevertheless performed with regularity which makes their appearance in the spring a fixed calendar event. The very essence of the season is in their flitting forms and lisping voices; without them May would seem a dreary month and the migration of birds lose half its charm. But these dainty, fascinating sprites of the tree-tops are elusive. Years of observation may be required to add to one's list of field acquaintances the last of the thirty-odd species which, in eastern North America, may be found at a single locality. In this quest the field-glass student is handicapped. The small size of Warblers, their activity, the nature of their haunts, their rapid journeys, marked seasonal changes in plumage, and the general resemblance in the song of many species all tend to render recognition in life unusually difficult. This book has, therefore, been prepared with the cooperation of other ornithologists, to meet the demand for a fully illustrated work which will serve as an aid to the field identification of Warblers and to the study of their life-histories.

The Warblers Of New England

C.J. Maynard

Published in 6 parts between 1901 and 1904

From the prospectus:

"This work contains descriptions of ail of the species of American Warblers which are found in New England. The book is illustrated with twelve hand-colored plates on which are figured a male and female of each species. THIE TEXT. The Family characters are first given, both external and internal, followed by a comparison with allied families. Generic characters are then defined in a clear, concise manner, and descriptions of species follow. The size is first given, then the characteristic markings, the time of migration and breeding range. This portion of the text is in large type. Following this, in smaller type, is a detailed description of the adult male and female, then of the young, and when known, of the nestling. Dimensions are next given; then comparisons with allied species, a feature particularly valuable to those who are comparatively unfamiliar with birds. Careful descriptions of the nests and eggs are given. The text on habits is in large type. This is a general account of the species, a more detailed account of the song, migration, and breeding range follows. ILLUSTRATIONS. One of the advantages of this book are the illustrations; many of the characters mentioned are explained by wood cuts, engraved by the author. PLATES. There are twelve plates, on each of which are given life-sized heads of both sexes of all of our warblers. These plates are engraved and hand-colored by the author."

Distribution And Migration Of North American Warblers

Wells W. Cooke

US Department of Agriculture

Government Printing Office

1904

From the introduction:

The warblers are birds of wide distribution. They occur in summer in greater or less abundance over nearly the whole of North America except the arid lands of the Southwest and the Barren Grounds of the far North. Though of small size they are brightly colored, and during the migrations they come in such numbers, both of species and individuals, that they often form the most conspicuous part of a bird wave, and their return is awaited with eagerness by students of migration. In spring the lover of the beautiful finds among them brilliant colors in multiple variety; the practiced ear is taxed to distinguish their faint songs dropping from the tree tops; and the experienced ornithologist feels a pleasurable excitement in scanning each individual of the passing host as he seeks the rarity that will more than repay the time spent in the search.

The Birds Of North And Middle America: A Descriptive Catalogue

Part II: Family Tanagridae - The Tanagers, Family Icteridae - The Troupials, Family Coerebidae - The Honey Creepers, Family Mniotiltidae - The Wood Warblers

Robert Ridgway

Smithsonian Institution

United States National Museum

1902

Preface:

"The present volume is the second of a series which will probably require eight volumes for completion. It contains the following families: Tanagridae (Tanagers), Icteridae (Troupials), Coerebidae (Honey Creepers), and Mniotiltidae (Wood Warblers). Part I, issued in 1901, included the Family Fringillidae (Finches) alone. Part III, which is well under way, will include the Motacillidae (Wagtails and Pipits), Hirundinidae (Swallows), Vireonidae (Vireos), Ampelidae (Waxwings), Ptiliogonatidae (Silken Chatterers), Dulidae (Palm Chatterers), Laniidae (Shrikes), Corvidae (Crows and Jays), Paridae (Titmice), Sittidae (Nuthatches), Certhiidae (Creepers), Troglodytidae (Wrens), Cinclidae (Dippers), Chamaeiidae (Wren-tits), and Sylviidae (Kinglets, etc.), and will probably go to press some time during the present year. The remaining volumes are all in a more or less advanced stage of preparation and it is hoped that these may follow at the rate of two a year. Acknowledgments for the loan of material for use in the preparation of the present volume are due to the persons and public institutions mentioned in Part I (pages xii, xiii), and also to Dr. A. K. Fisher, Mr. William Palmer, and Mr. Paul Bartsch, of Washington, District of Columbia. Both Dr. Fisher and Mr. Palmer should have been mentioned in Part I in this connection, and the inadvertent omission of their names is much regretted. Most of the measurements of specimens for the present volume were made by Mr. J. H. Riley, Mr. Sidney S. Wilson, and Miss Frances E. Swett."

A Review Of The American "Golden Warblers"

Robert Ridgway

Proceedings of the United States National Museum

1885

Opening lines:

"In a short paper published in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, vol. iii, pp. 1-4, I briefly characterized a new form of this group from the island of Cozumel, Yucatan, under the name of Dendroica petechia rufivertex. The birds of this group being much confused, it was found necessary, before the status of the Cozumel bird could be determined, to carefully examine all the material available (embracing considerably more than one hundred specimens from tropical America, besides a very extensive series of D. oestiva from North America); and as the results of this examination may be of interest, a brief synopsis is herewith presented, together with a fuller diagnosis of the Cozumel form, and also another new one from Lower California and western Mexico."

A Synopsis of the Genus Setophaga

Osbert Salvin

Ibis: Volume 20, Issue 3, pages 302-321

1878

Opening lines:

"The genus Setophaga belongs to the American Passerine family Mniotiltidae. One of its chief distinguishing characters is its broad Flycatcher-like bill and its strong rictal bristles, by which its likeness to the Flycatchers of the Old World is still further enhanced. The presence of nine instead of ten primaries, however, at once shows that the true relationship of Setophaga is with the American Mniotiltidae, and not with the Old-World Muscicapidae."