At Home in the Swamp: Prothonotary Warbler

On my recent research trip (for book 2 in my trilogy Of the Wing), I was fortunate to accompany a small group of biologists and naturalists on a recreational two-day canoe trip of Bayou DeView—a location synonymous with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Because, here in a bottomland forest swamp of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge (southeast Arkansas), in recent years the Ivory-billed Woodpecker has been sighted by several people. But this posting isn’t about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (which we didn’t see) but instead about a much smaller inhabitant of forested wetlands—the bright yellow Prothonotary Warbler. (Image by Eugene Hester, USFWS).

Its breeding range in North America consists mostly of the southeastern United States, though this bird’s range pushes farther north (see range map provided by Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s web site All About Birds). I heard the Prothonotary Warbler for the first time last year during a research visit to the White River National Wildlife Refuge. This year I heard and saw this incredibly bright yellow warbler with gray wings, which unlike other warblers (except one) is a cavity nester. The male’s head is golden-orange. Throughout our canoe trip on the Bayou DeView, we heard the Prothonotary’s song (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet or sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet)--described by one online source as “clear, high [and] metallic”--ringing throughout the forest. This bird is an insect eater, gleaning insects from the bark of trees with its thin, pointed bill. From our trip’s leader, Allan Mueller, I also learned something quite interesting—the Prothonotary likes to nest in cavities in the “knees” of the Bald Cypress (see my April 19, 2009 entry for more about the Bald Cypress). The “knees” of the cypress are woody projections that grow up from the tree’s roots a few feet above ground. It’s believed that the roots “breath” through these knees when the ground is flooded. Pretty interesting, wouldn’t you say? Imagine being in a hardwood forest of cypress and tupelo gliding on a lazy bayou through the trees, where cottonmouth snakes bask on logs and birds sweeten the air with song. I was lucky enough to live it and will carry that experience my entire life. Till next time . . . keep birds in your heart! Georgia Anne