Country Ecology: Golden warbler

Our Neotropical migrants go through much to come up to our northern regions for their summer breeding efforts, that we should know by now, they aren’t “our birds” but fly up here seasonally to gather insects that plague us and our vegetable gardens, as well as munching tree foliage every spring and summer.

It is a vigorous pursuit for their gathering needed protein for nestlings, because these numerous avian species have evolved since glacial times to see our “bug season” as opportune fodder — however its brief moment — before returning to Central and South America in late summer. Nearly half of the more than 800 species that breed in the United States and Canada temperate zone migrate south for the winter months.