Cerulean Warbler Festival June 5-7, 2009 Family friendly and fun! Come and learn about conserving North America's fastest declining songbird and learn how you can help! |
Guided Tours to Cerulean Warbler habitat! May 9 - June 22nd, 2008 All proceedes to benefit Michigan Audubon Society Join Michigan Audubon's Director of Conservation Tom Funke as he leads tours into Cerulean Warbler habitat. |
WHAT IS A CERULEAN WARBLER? A Cerulean Warbler is a small, sky blue songbird with dark stripes on its sides, a white chin, and a black mask on its face. It is rarely seen or heard except by an experienced naturalist. WHAT IS THEIR HABITAT? Cerulean Warblers require extremely large, deciduous forests with large, mature trees. They are rarely found in forests under 2000 acres in size. Scientists that study Cerulean's suspect that they need at least 8000 acres to sustain a breeding population. Even something as simple as a road disrupts their required habitat. They especially like swamp, or bottomland forests. WHERE CAN I SEE A CERULEAN WARBLER? This bird is very rare, you would not see it in a suburban forest setting. Most naturalists only hear this bird, as it spends it time at the top of the forest. Fortuneatly, Ceruleans are know to nest in the Barry State Game Area and Yankee Springs Recreation Area. They have been seen and heard in the Warner Sanctuary as well. HOW RARE IS IT? The Cerulean Warbler is listed as a species of special concern. In the late 1980's, the entire state of Michgian was surveyed for breeding birds, the Cerulean was found in less than 2% of Michigan's Townships. The are North America's fastest declining songbird. There are about 1000 in Michigan and less than 500,000 rangewide. They are losing 3-5% of their numbers each year. WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT CERULEAN WARBLERS? Birdwatching is a multi-billion dollar industry. The more birds you have in your area, the more naturalists come to try to find them. They spend money in our communites in search of birds. Ceruleans are an "indicator" species. The presence of a Cerulean Warbler indicates a large, mature forest. WHY ARE THEY SO RARE? Although we have more forests now than in 1900, the vast majority are too small to support a population of Cerulean Warblers. Even our large forests are being slowly chipped away due to development. WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP? Preserving remaining large forest tracts, especially private inholdings around the Barry State Game Area and Yankee Springs State Recreation Area. If you think you've heard or seen a Cerulean Warbler and you are not an experienced birdwatcher, you will need a photograph (good luck!) or an audio recording. But if you can get an exact location, please contact us and we will try to send someone out to verify your report. |
Cerulean Warbler Festival and Tours |
Guided Tours to Cerulean Warbler habitat! May 9 - June 22nd, 2008 All proceedes to benefit Michigan Audubon Society Join Michigan Audubon's Director of Conservation Tom Funke as he leads tours into Cerulean Warbler habitat. |
Cerulean Warbler Festival June 5-7, 2009 Family friendly and fun! Come and learn about conserving North America's fastest declining songbird and learn how you can help! |
