It is not often that I get the opportunity to see, photograph and study a new bird species. Recently I had the opportunity to travel to south central Wisconsin and meet up with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to observer and photograph an endangered species, the Kirtland’s Warbler (Dendroica kirtlandii).

The Kirtland’s warbler is a fairly large when compared to other warblers and it has a strong song that can be heard from a decent distance. It is mainly bluish / gray with black highlights and a yellow chin and chest. A black mask, white eye-ring and a large dark bill are prominent on this bird.

I met the USFW service early in the morning and took a short ride to an undisclosed location where the Kirtland’s Warbler were known to nest. After parking we bush-wacked for several minutes through a thick stand of trees. It wasn’t long before I could hear one of the males singing. At this time of year only the males are around. Each male is busy setting up a territory and singing from the highest perches to announce to the world that this is their home.

We tip-toed closer trying to locate the warbler in the thick evergreen growth. It was still early and the sun was just coming up so it was important to get on the light- side of this singing bird. You see, in photography it is all about getting the right light. So we carefully moved around until the bird came into view. It was still too far away so we snuck up a bit further and fortunately the bird stayed put and I was able to capture some amazing images of this endangered species. I would repeat this time and time again over the next couple of days capturing some great behaviors of an cool bird.

Throughout the 1900’s the Kirtland’s Warbler was known to exist only in the northern part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. It wasn’t until the 1950’s did officials start to look at this species with some concern. During the 1970’s the Kirtland’s Warbler population plummeted and in 1974 only about 170 total birds existed. Management plans were put into place which included better habitat management and also Brown-headed Cowbird reduction. I don’t have enough space to explain all the problems with cowbirds but suffice to say that they caused a big problem for the Kirtland’s. Populations started to rebound during the 1980’s and 1990’s to the point that in 1995 the Kirtland’s was spreading into the Upper Peninsula on Michigan and a few places in Canada.

After a number of years in which Kirtland’s were incidentally reported, in 2007 three nesting pairs of Kirtland’s were found in south central Wisconsin. Since this amazing discovery, a number of locations have been identified that hold nesting Kirtland’s. In the area where I was photographing there were only 28 total males on territory.

This species is a habitat specialist and requires young Jack Pine forests for nesting. In the past forest fires would sweep through regions killing older trees. The Jack Pine is a species of tree that is a early colonizer after forest fires. The Kirtland’s nests on the ground under the protection of the overhanging lower branches of 5 to 20 year old Jack Pines. Once these trees grow up the lower branches die off, the nesting habitat is lost and the warblers would be forced to find another stand of young Jack Pines.

During the 1900’s, modern fire suppression was employed by the forest service and major forest fires quickly became a thing of the past. Obviously this was a major contributing factor to the demise of the Kirtland’s. Now-a-days we can actually manage forest for young Jack and Red Pines through selective logging which will provide critical habitat for this endangered species. It is now estimated that the total population as of 2011 is 1,800 males (presuming one female per male) that comes out to somewhere around 3,500 to 4,000 total birds in existence.

I am always in awe of mother nature and her resiliency. Here is a small bird that was facing near extinction and has come back and even expanded its range. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on Facebook.com and Twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.