Cape May Warbler (Dendroica tigrina)

County List:

Rule:

Forested or Mixed Forested/Nonforested Landscapes

      (Spruce/Fir (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Black Spruce (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Mixed Upland Conifer (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))  
      or Treed Bog
   containing:
      Stand/Gap Openings

Habitat List:

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Literature:

Habitat: A spruce budworm specialist, the Cape May in Michigan is largely restricted to wet coniferous forest bogs dominated by black spruce, in which it sings, forages, and nests. The trees may be scattered or dense, and the floor is almost always matted with sphagnum moss. Occasional balsam firs, northern white cedars, tamaracks, and even hardwoods may be mixed in. Medium-aged spruce, 25 to 75 years old, over 32 feet tall, and with well-developed crowns, are favored. Mature, mesic coniferous forest composed of white spruce and balsam fir, a relatively scarce habitat in Michigan, is also used occasionally. Pure tamarack, in which singing males have been seen, would not seem to afford crown foliage dense enough for nest sites. This species does not breed in jack pines, contra Payne (1983). The bulky cup-shaped nest is well hidden near the top of a tall spruce or balsam fir, and the parents sneak to it by climbing up the trunk from near the base, facts that help explain the paucity of Michigan nest records.

Habitat: Breeding: Fairly open coniferous forest with a high percentage of mature spruces; dense spruce forest with a scattering of taller spires above the canopy level; in more open land among small trees.

Special Habitat Requirements: Tall stands of spruce.

Habitat: Spruce forest; other trees in migration. Breeds in spruce forest, either in pure stands or mixed with firs or other trees, generally in more open woods or near the forest edge. During migration often favors conifers, but also forages in deciduous trees and thickets.

Diet: Mostly insects, some fruit, nectar. Diet includes spruce budworms, parasitic wasps and flies, ants, bees, small moths, beetles, leafhoppers, also spiders. In migration, may pierce grapes and drink juice. Also feeds on sap from holes drilled by sapsuckers. The Cape May has a tubular tongue, unique among warblers; in winter, it feeds heavily on flower nectar and fruit juices.

Nest: Placed very close to the top of a 35-60 foot spruce or fir, in thick foliage against trunk. Nest is cup-shaped and made of moss, vines, weeds; lined thickly with feathers and fur.

Numbers rise and fall, increasing during population explosions of spruce budworm and other insects in northern forests.