At Wild South, we are working to survey public lands for the presence of the warbler. Informing the USFS with the data, commenting on their logging practices, and providing alternative management strategies to protect the species habitat. Providing education and public awareness on the species. We also work to monitor known populations in order to determine how recent USFS logging operations have affected the species.
Physical Description 1. Male - Light blue (cerulean) upperparts and white underparts. Indistinct black streaking on back and uppertail coverts. Narrow black necklace on upper breast, with some black streaking on the flanks. Two white wing bars. 2. Female- Bluish-green to olive-green upperparts and white to yellowish-white underparts with faint streaking on flanks. Two white wing bars and a white or yellowish eyebrow stripe. 3. Juvenile-Brownish-gray upperparts with pale median crown stripe; white underparts. 
Distribution & Habitat Cerulean warblers are tropical migrants whose winter range for most of the year is spent in northern South America from northern Columbia and Venezuela down to southern Peru and northwestern Bolivia. Their summer (breeding) range is in North American deciduous forests with tall, mature trees, mostly near stream bottoms, along lake and river shores, or on river islands. In some areas, they are also found signing in mature forests on dry slopes and ridges. 
Life History and Diet This insectivore forages by gleaning (plucking insects or other invertebrates from foliage or the ground), hover-gleaning, and hawking or sallying (takes short flights from a perch to capture flying insects). Cerulean warblers make an open cup nest of bark fibers, grass stems, and hair bound together with spider web, placed on a lateral limb of a deciduous tree in mid- to upper-canopy. Usually concealed from above by leaves or twigs on the nest branch. The warbler’s clutch size ranges from 1 to 5 grayish to greenish-white eggs that are speckled with brown. 
Extinction Pressure Cerulean warblers need large swaths of contiguous mature forest to breed. Logging and development of their North American breeding habitats fragment forests, affecting the bird’s ability to breed, causing decline in populations. In fragmented forest areas, warblers are vulnerable to nest parasitism by the brown-headed cowbird. Their population is also being threatened by destruction of forests in their wintering grounds in South America. Cerulean Warbler numbers are declining faster than any other warbler species in the USA; its population nowadays is less than one-fifth of what it was 40 years ago. 
Conservation Status The cerulean warbler is designated as a federal species of concern by the US Fish and Wildlife Service - a species under consideration for listing, for which there is insufficient information to support listing at this time. In North Carolina, cerulean warblers are also listed as a state species of “Special Concern.” Little is known about the bird’s population health, habitat affinities, and range requirements in most areas of historic presence, delaying conservation efforts. |
