Black-throated Green Warblers

Listen in Pennsylvania’s forests during the summer, and you may hear the persistent song of the Black-throated Green Warbler.  Their buzzy song often sounds like they’re saying trees trees I love trees.  Like many forest birds, these warblers are more often heard than seen.  If you see one, watch for their mostly yellow face, greenish crown and back, and bold bars of white on each wing.  Although they’re called Black-throated Green Warblers, it’s only the adult males that have a fully black throat.  The feathers on the throats of females and young birds are mostly white.

Although they’re not common nesters in the Susquehanna Valley, you can find Black-throated Green Warblers across most of the state.  Out of more than two dozen warbler species that nest in our state, they’re the seventh most abundant, with an estimated population of about 710 thousand (our most abundant warbler is the Ovenbird, with a population of about 3.2 million).  In September and October they’ll fly south to Mexico, northern South America, and some islands in the Caribbean.  A few will spend the winter as far north as the southern tips of Texas and Florida.

When I was a kid learning my birds, Black-throated Green Warblers were one of the first birds I learned to identify after I ventured beyond my backyard.  After being interested in birds for several years, I was fortunate to learn how to really go about identifying birds from the assistant director of a camp where my family vacationed each year.  This species often brings back memories of those early days of discovery in the forests of southern Somerset County.