Third Decennial Census of Kirtland's Warbler

Abstract

S WARBLER (Dendroica kirtlandii) was discovered in 1851, and since that time has always been considered a rare bird. The discovery of the nesting ground in 1903 revealed habitat so specialized and restricted that I doubt the population was much larger at any time in recent centuries. A momentary upsurge may have occurred in the period 1870-1900 when collectors took a number of specimens on the wintering ground in the Bahama Islands. Significantly this was the time of most active lumbering and most extensive forest fires in the breeding range, when optimal nesting habitat was probably the greatest in hundreds of years.