Hooded Warbler (Wilsonia citrina)

County List:

Rule:

Forested or Mixed Forested/Nonforested Landscapes

      (Assorted Hardwoods (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Northern Hardwoods (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Bottomland Hardwoods (Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))

Habitat List:

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Literature:

Habitat: Hooded Warblers occur in the understory of mesic and wet broad-leaved forest. Community associates include Acadian Flycatchers and Cerulean Warblers. Hooded Warblers prefer or require woodlots of substantial size but selective cutting of trees seems not to be harmful and may even increase populations by encouraging a dense understory. Windthrows have the same effect in undisturbed forests. Males sing throughout the relatively large territories, a loud, clear song with a distinctive accented ending.

Nests are low, in four cases in Jackson Co. below one meter. They are well-crafted, "a clever piece of bird architecture" according to Gibbs, of grass, bark, spider webs, and dried flowers, placed on a platform of dead maple or other leaves. In Michigan and elsewhere in the northern part of the warbler's range, small saplings of trees, such as beech, maple, and basswood, or shrubs, such as spicebush, are the most frequent nest sites; however, brambles and herbaceous plants, such as blue cohosh, are also used.

It is an area sensitive species of beech-maple and floodplain forests, two habitats that have greatly declined in the past few decades. The most useful conservation practice is preservation of the remaining forest of these types and also of successional forests on sites with the potential to regenerate these types. Some selective logging is compatible with the presence of Hooded Warblers and may even be a desirable management practice.

Habitat: Breeding: Most often in brushy, swampy lowlands, less frequently at edges and interiors of well-watered mature deciduous woodlands with dense undergrowth or on rich, moist hillsides in thickets of laurel. Favors lowlands.

Special Habitat Requirements: Low, dense woody vegetation (deciduous).

Habitat: Forest undergrowth. Breeds in forest interiors of mixed hardwoods in the north and cypress-gum swamps in the south. During migration, found in deciduous and mixed eastern forests.

Diet: Insects and other arthropods. Feeds on a wide variety of insects, including caterpillars, moths, grasshoppers, beetles, flies, and many others; also eats many spiders.

Nest: Female chooses site in patches of deciduous shrubs within forest or along edge. Site usually 1-4 feet above ground. Nest is open cup of dead leaves, bark, fine grasses, spider webs, hair, and plant down.

Conservation Status: Considered vulnerable because it is often parasitized by cowbirds, especially where forest is broken up into small patches, and because it favors undergrowth of tropical forest for wintering.