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Introduction
Adult male Magnolia Warbler, at the nest.
Conspicuous, handsome black and yellow markings and a loud, distinctive song make the Magnolia Warbler one of North America’s best known and most striking wood-warblers. This is a common warbler of the eastern boreal forest, where it nests along with Black-throated Green (D. virens), Blackburnian (D. fusca), and Yellow-rumped (D. coronata) warblers. Unlike the first two of these congeners, however, the Magnolia Warbler is a bird of dense young growth, usually nesting in conifers – spruce (Picea spp.) in the north and eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) in the south. It seldom is found at any great height above ground, and its nest is usually less than 5 meters above ground. It is an active species, with males vigorously chasing other males and females, even during migration.
Alexander Wilson collected the first specimen of this species in 1810 from a magnolia tree in Mississippi and gave it the inappropriate specific name magnolia, although his English name for the species was Black-and-yellow Warbler. Despite its numerical abundance and conspicuous behavior, the Magnolia Warbler has been little studied, and many aspects of its breeding biology remain poorly known. Nests are difficult to find in the species’ dense breeding habitat, and only a few have been watched systematically, providing little information on nesting success and productivity. Essentially nothing is known about the critical period between fledging and the first autumn migration. On the species’ tropical wintering grounds, where it inhabits shrubby second growth and various arboreal agricultural areas, biologists have likewise spent little time with this species.
Magnolia Warbler populations presently appear to be stable or slightly increasing. Unlike some Neotropical migrants whose habitat is threatened, the Magnolia Warbler’s preferred habitat is increasing as forests are removed in both nesting and wintering areas. There is some indication, however, that brood parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molthrus ater) may be an increasing problem for this warbler.
Hall, George A. 1994. Magnolia Warbler (Dendroica magnolia), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/136
