Podcast Link At End

Back to previous photo essay; on to next one

A QUINTET OF NEW WARBLERS (PLUS A HUMMINGBIRD FLOWER)

#38: 06-21 May 2026

"This Week At Hilton Pond North" is an on-going series of original photo essays—posted more or less weekly—about natural history happenings here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of upper Ashe County, North Carolina. If you want a free e-mail reminder about each new installment, click here to SUBSCRIBE.

Like to listen? After reading the photo essay a free "Deep Dive" audio podcast is available on Spotify (click arrow) or Apple Podcast (click episode number.)

If you like what you're reading and would like to help support the work of Hilton Pond North, please click on the PayPal DONATE button at page top or visit our FUNDING page for other ways you can contribute.

If you have questions or comments about the current installment, send an e-mail to thisweek@hiltonpond.org

#####

Random observations about Blue Ridge Birds & Nature

● Banded in 2026: 36 species, 1,499 individuals

● All-time (2024-present) banding totals: 72 species, 4,677 individuals

● All-time (2024-present) "Yard List": 93 species

● Local breeding species (based on nests found, banded females with brood patches, or recent fledglings seen or banded): 20

Apple Podcast #38

Since our February 2024 move to Hilton Pond North in upper Ashe County NC we've been overwhelmed by the number of wintering American Goldfinches we've banded—995 so far in 2026, and 2,481 altogether. That's a LOT of AMGO! We've likewise been gratified by how many Ruby-throated Hummingbirds we've encountered here in just three seasons (331), particularly because RTHU are our primary studies species. (Even more significant are 37 different ruby-throats from previous years that returned and have been recaptured at least once at our forested banding site.) We didn't really anticipate so many goldfinches nor such success with hummingbirds.

We've been equally surprised at how few Neotropical migrants we've been able to band locally. We didn’t think these mountains would be dripping with warblers and thrushes, but we did expect greater diversity and bigger numbers than we've encountered. Our South Carolina Piedmont site was significantly more productive in those regards. Even the Merlin iPhone app has detected relatively few vocalizations by migratory birds passing through. Perhaps our mid-level elevation (3,000') is too low or too high, or weather conditions thus far have yet to be conducive to a big fallout at our research site. Nonetheless, we document what we experience and band what we can, including a quintet of North American Wood Warblers described and pictured below.

Perhaps the most intriguing spring migrant banded this week initially took us aback. After it hit our mist net we could tell from a distance it was a male Blue-winged Warbler (BWWA, top photo), but as we got ready to extract it we noticed strange black markings on its head (photo just above). BWWA is known to hybridize with other species—especially Golden-winged Warbler—and that was our first thought. However, after examining the marks with a hand lens we determined they came from a foreign tar-like substance the bird must have brushed against. The material was dry and hard so the warbler must have encountered it before or during northbound migration from non-breeding areas in Mexico, Central America, or the Caribbean. The species is scarce in the NC mountains, with very few breeding records. Blue-winged Warbler was the 93rd species for our "Yard List" and the 72nd banded.

The BWWA male's profile image at page top shows a pair of wide white wing bars that are less obvious in females. But those feathers also appear to have a yellow tinge. Could this bird actually be a back-crossed individual with Golden-winged Warbler genes in its ancestral line? No way to know for sure without DNA analysis, but it's always a possibility.

Four other migrant Wood Warblers were new this week for our 2026 banding list, including a second-year female American Redstart (AMRE, above) with distinctive yellow tail spots she flashes frequently, apparently to startle insects into revealing themselves. The behavior is even showier in adult males whose black and orange plumage is far brighter than the female's. AMRE breed widely across eastern North America in second-growth deciduous and mixed forest with a well-developed shrub layer. At ~3,000', Hilton Pond North sits near the upper end of the species' elevational breeding comfort zone within the southern Appalachians.

One for-sure-female parulid this week was a Black-and-white Warbler (BAWW). Although sexes are similar, the female's cheek is much paler, as above. Further confirming its gender, this individual revealed a prominent brood patch indicating she was sitting on either eggs or chicks. It's nice to confirm breeding in this way even without locating her nest at Hilton Pond North. BAWW are among the earliest spring warbler arrivals, appearing in late March or early April well before the canopy leafs out; this makes sense since they are bark-surface foragers that don't require leaves from which to glean caterpillars. They breed here in mature and semi-mature mixed forests, nesting on the ground at the base of a tree or stump in a cup tucked against a root or rock.

Another ground-nesting species we banded during the week was one of those little brown warblers, a spot-breasted Ovenbird (OVEN, above). Its common name derives from its domed, oven-shaped nest—a roofed, well-concealed structure of dead leaves, grass, and plant fibers with a side entrance. At Hilton Pond North OVEN sing their "teacher, teacher, TEACHER" song late April through midsummer before they depart for the Caribbean, Mexico, or Central America, although some are short-distance migrants to Florida and the Gulf Coast. There's some evidence Ovenbirds that breed in the southern Appalachians end up in an arc from Florida to Cuba to Hispaniola.

We'd already captured a male Hooded Warbler (HOWA) on 2 May at Hilton Pond North, but it was a returning bird banded last year. This week we caught a new one (above), this time with a prominent cloacal protuberance indicating breeding condition. HOWA are birds of the sub-canopy and understory, working and nesting in the dim interior of mature deciduous and mixed forests with a well-developed shrub layer. Our Rosebay Rhododendron thickets and Spicebush stands are just such habitat; we would not be surprised in a few weeks to see fledglings out and about. Incidentally, Hooded Warblers also flash their insect-startling tail spots like American Redstarts.

First banded was a female Scarlet Tanager (SCTA, above)—a yellow-green bird with grayish wings and horn-colored bill. In the hand this individual was eye-pleasing in her own right, but then we caught a male (below) whose brilliant scarlet and black plumage just blows you away. Curiously, this stunning dimorphism doesn’t last for long; by July the male begins molting into non-breeding plumage and resembles the female—except he retains his black wings year-round. This makes adult SCTA one of a few long-distance migrants to largely complete full molt prior to departing North America rather than after arriving in the Neotropics. (NOTE: The adult male may sport a calico appearance in late summer or fall, with blotches of green mixed among red. Such blotchiness is also typical of young males in their first full spring on the breeding grounds, but their wings are always darker than a female's.)

Despite bright color, at Hilton Pond North we often hear Scarlet Tanagers before we see them, the male's loud, repetitive song a hoarse series of phrases resembling an American Robin with a sore throat. Both sexes make a distinctive chip-burr call that carries through dense forests. In upper Ashe County, Scarlet Tanagers nest in mature mixed and deciduous woodlands, particularly where oaks form a significant canopy component; such Quercus spp. are important as foraging substrate given the diversity and abundance of moth and butterfly larvae their foliage supports. Interestingly, Scarlet Tanagers are important seed dispersers for understory shrubs, particularly during fall migration when they shift heavily toward fruit consumption. They are also significant predators of Forest Tent Caterpillars and Gypsy Moth larvae during outbreaks, with SCTA consuming huge quantities of these hairy caterpillars most insectivorous birds avoid.

Red-eyed Vireos (REVI, above) with their ruby-red irises are among the most abundant breeding birds in mature eastern deciduous forests. The species can likewise claim title as our most persistent singer at Hilton Pond North as REVI deliver an endless series of short phrases from the canopy. (One researcher tallied more than 22,000 song phrases from a single male in a single day!) The song continues through midday heat when other songbirds go quiet, leading to the old nickname "preacher bird" for its seemingly inexhaustible sermonizing. Red-eyed Vireos glean soft-bodied arthropods from foliage with a bill that has a distinct hook and slight notch useful for handling prey (see photo). Although various vireos are sometimes confused with warblers, the latter do not show a hooked upper mandible. After nesting in woodlands across eastern North America, REVI go to the Amazon basin in South America, making them one of the longer-haul travelers among our nesting songbirds.

Creeping Buttercup, Ranunculus repens, is a low-growing perennial from to Europe and western Asia that has naturalized thoroughly across North America. In some states it is considered invasive. It spreads aggressively by both seed and stolons—creeping stems that root at nodes and advance across bare soil with efficiency. This makes it a persistent colonizer of wet meadows, stream margins, garden edges, pasture corners, and anywhere soil moisture is reliable and disturbance creates openings. Leaves are trifoliate and blotched with pale markings that serve as a field character; flowers are the classic "glossy buttercup yellow"—a reflective sheen produced by a specialized layer of starch cells beneath the epidermis. We discovered several of these plants in the garden area here at Hilton Pond North, and despite its eye-pleasing flowers and foliage have decided to remove all lest they encroach on our native plantings.

One flower we'll NOT be removing from Hilton Pond North is Fire Pink, Silene virginica, with its five deeply notched, brilliant scarlet petals arranged around a tubular calyx. This is a native spring perennial of rocky open woods, edges, and dry to mesic slopes, usually in openings where filtered light reaches the ground. The heart of its range is the southern Appalachians, where it appears April through June on drier, rockier slopes and road-cut edges with a thin tree canopy. The florescence is typical of hummingbird-attractors: A long corolla tube absent a wide landing platform, a nutritious nectar load, and red coloration highly visible to birds but mostly inconspicuous to many bees. This makes early arriving Ruby-throated Hummingbirds the primary pollinators, although various long-tongued insects do visit. The entire plant is covered in sticky glandular hairs thought to deter crawling insects from stealing nectar without  pollinating. Fire Pink propagates via small seeds that typically fall close to the mother plant, sometimes leading to a locally dense population that brightens the forest floor. Native plant and hummer enthusiasts would do well by installing this seldom-used wildflower in their gardens.