Cerulean Warbler

1/4000s, f5.6, ISO 2000, Canon EOS-1D X, EF800mm f/5.6L IS USM


The cerulean warbler is a small songbird of the New World warbler family. Their breeding habitats are mature deciduous forests in eastern North America. They migrate to spend the boreal winter in forested mountain areas in South America. They forage actively high in trees, sometimes catching insects in flight. These birds mainly eat insects. Their nests are cup-shaped, and are placed on a horizontal branch high in a hardwood tree. The cerulean warbler is the fastest declining neotropical migrant songbird. Among the many threats they face, their wintering habitat in the northern Andes is dwindling rapidly. Cerulean warblers depend on shade coffee plantations during the winter. This traditional farming technique is at risk as coffee prices fluctuate and pressure to switch to higher-yield sun coffee or other crops intensifies.
Shawnee Forest, Ohio
 
04/24/2015