The Arrival of the Hardy Spring Pine Warblers

Do you have to wait until third Spring to enjoy warblers? Most of the many different members of this family of small, colorful tree birds are tropical, and strictly consume the insects that feed on the leaves of trees. It is usually the last few days of April before the deciduous trees begin to leaf out and insects begin to feed on those baby leaves.

There are a hardy handful of warblers that have found a way to supplement such a diet. One of them is the pine warbler, which not only specializes in the trees that are ever green with leaves, but also is adept at finding food in other places. So the pine warbler does not migrate to Central or South America for the winter, it stops well-short.

It can be found all year in the great yellow pine forests of the southeastern United States. The birds that nest to the north of the Mason-Dixon line retreat only a few hundred miles to join their southern relatives in late fall, and are poised to return to us early in spring.

They are here now, and if you visit a pine forest, such as those found in parks or around reservoirs, you can find them. There the bright yellow breast of the male appears to hang on the green boughs like a forgotten Christmas ornament. They move rather slowly for a warbler and are easy to see as they forage along the branches.

The voice is simple, a single mellow note repeated in a long series that is often called a trill but is not. This song is easy to confuse with other species that have very similar voices. The notes in the chipping sparrow song are drier and crisper, the junco notes are slight and more liquid. The pine warbler paces his notes and holds them just long enough for a sweet, gentle, and soothing sound.

Instead of joining the throngs of shoppers that visit the mall in Holyoke, turn the other way and drive up the hill to Ashley Ponds. Walk inside the gate and enter the dark woods to your left. There you will discover the pine warbler as soon as the first of April, perhaps many of them, just arrived in the small flocks that is their travel mode.

The ponds are nestled among the trees, and near the shallow edges where insects are first active you will also find a companion warbler called the palm. This bird looks similar, but the yellow of its belly spreads all the way back under the tail, while the pine is white there. The palm warbler forages on or near the ground almost all the time, while the pine only sometimes dines there.

Another second spring warbler partial to evergreens is the yellow-rumped, formerly called the myrtle warbler. As the old, preferable name suggests, this bird eats small berries during the cold months and is found regularly in the thickets that grow near the ocean in winter, even in southern New England. The pine warbler also considers berries an acceptable menu item.

On a cold day in early spring, you might see several pine warblers checking the leaf litter for bugs, or even eating pine seeds. In fact, these birds are so hardy and resourceful, they sometimes survive the New England winter. Every few years there is a call from a surprised home owner, reporting that a pine warbler is coming in to grab bits of seed or suet at their feeder.

The pine warbler prefers the yellow or pitch pine once common on the flat sand barrens of the Connecticut River Valley. Such places are ideal for building houses, however, most of those forests are much thinned now, or even removed entirely. Fortunately, the bird will resort to white pines if the yellow is not available.

The pine warbler is one of those southern species that is extending its range northward, increasing here over the last fifty years, and now present wherever pines grow. The palm and yellow-rumped warblers breed mostly north of us, but all three species stay all year in North America, thanks to their ability to find food in many places.

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