National Geographic Magazine/Volume 31/Number 4/Friends of Our Forests/Black-throated Green Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler (Dendroica virens)


Range: Breeds in lower Canadian and Transition Zones from west, central, and northeastern Alberta, southern Manitoba, central Ontario, northeastern Quebec, and Newfoundland south to southern Minnesota, southern Wisconsin, northern Ohio, northern New Jersey, Connecticut, and Long Island, New York, and in the Alleghenies south to South Carolina and Georgia; winters in Mexico (Nuevo Leon to Chiapas and Yucatan), Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama.

What true bird lover is there who does not cherish fond memories of certain birds? The very name of black-throated green warbler carries me back to boyhood days and to a certain pine-crested hill in Massachusetts, from which was wafted on an early spring morning the song of this warbler, heard by me then for the first time. The many years since elapsed have not effaced the sweet strains, and I seem to hear them now as they were borne that morning by the pine-scented spring breeze. I can vividly recall the pleasure the song occasioned and the satisfaction of having added one more bird to my small list of avian acquaintances. Those were the days of mystery, when the woods seemed filled with unknown birds, and secrets lurked in every thicket and met the seeker at every turn. They were the times when bird books were few, keys unknown, and the keen eyes of youth far more satisfactory than the best field glasses of the present day.

The black-throated green is one of the commoner of our eastern warblers and one of the first to engage the attention of the bird student. During migration it may be met with in every kind of woodland, where it is at home, both high and low, ever pursuing with tireless energy its quest for insects. It has two songs, or rather one song delivered in two different ways, sprightly, sweet, and perfectly characteristic. In summer it is partial to coniferous woods, especially white pines and hemlocks, and it frequently nests in these, though also in birches and alders.

Source: Henry W. Henshaw (April 1917), “Friends of Our Forests”, The National Geographic Magazine 31(4): 318. (Illustration from p. 316.)