A Morning with Golden-winged Warblers

After wrapping up my last Spring Songbird Workshop of the season, I decided to explore a new location to look for Golden-winged Warblers. These birds are a declining species, but there is a fairly large population center not too far from where I live. A large portion nest in the Northwest Sands of Wisconsin into Northern Minnesota, but there are pockets along the New York - New Jersey Border reaching into the North Eastern corner of Pennsylvania. Living in Northern NJ puts me right near the latter. I’ve had these birds less than 45 minutes from home, but these birds require quite a bit of hiking through tick infested terrain. What is tick infested terrain, you may ask? Why, it’s perfect Golden-winged Warbler habitat! These birds prefer regenerating or young, second growth forests, willow stands and/or tamarack bogs. Areas that have been logged, or impacted by storm blow downs make for perfect Golden-winged Warbler Habitat. Power-line cuts that are allowed to grow for some time are also frequented by these birds. As long as there’s shrubby ground cover near a forest edge, these birds are right at home.

Knowing where to look is only half the battle. You also need to know what to listen for. Many of these birds are hard to find by sight alone. You need to familiarize yourself with their songs and calls to better locate your quarry. There are a number of methods that one can use to learn sounds. These include the plethora of recording available on audubon.com and allaboutbirds.com databases and quiz apps like LarkWire. Alternatively, we have tools like Cornell Lab’s Merlin ID app. Merlin is handy when you’re not sure what you’re hearing or you’re looking to pinpoint one song in a very noisy patch of woods, but only if you plan on further investigating the bird. It should never be your only source of finding birds as it makes mistakes frequently. This is not to besmirch Merlin, rather, to point out that is merely one tool in a whole arsenal of tools at the bird watcher’s disposal. It is designed to let you know what you might be hearing so you can focus your efforts on a particular subject. This is a hill I will die on, but enough out Merlin. Let’s get back to the subject at hand.

Using sight and sound, I was able to photograph two Golden-winged Warbler this Spring. The first was by pure chance. I was exploring a new location that had reports of the bird, but I’ve learned to be cautious in these situations. Bird watchers and bird photographers have different standards when it comes to viewings, so I always take reports with a grain of salt. Still, if the habitat is right, it’s worth a shot. It was around 10am when I decided to head over to this spot. Luckily, it was technically on the way home, which only justified a visit even more. The light was harsh, but that’s never stopped me before. Once you find a bird, you can always come back when the conditions are ideal.

Nikon Z9 with the NIKKOR 500mm f/4G VR @ 1/1000 - f/4 - ISO 1250

On this particular outing, I heard the typical “Zeee Buzz Buzz Buzz” song of a Golden-wing far off the road. The road ran through a large clearing composed of short, second growth forest and grassland consisting of short oaks and maple trees with the odd pine and what I believe to be balsam fir. Beyond this, sat a dense stand of mixed forest. After exploring the forest edge, I came across not one, but two Golden-winged Warblers competing for territory. One would sing from a perch along the side of a large snag. This towered over the field below and gave the bird a good view of the competition. Every once in a while, the other male would make his presence known and the two would squabble. Another challenge on this day was the light. I had spent the morning with a client photographing Canada, Magnolia and Chestnut-sided Warblers, which was great fun, but it meant that the light was shot by time I arrived at this golden-wing spot. I’ll usually find a nice shady spot to shoot in in these cases. The only problem with this method, is expecting the birds to do the same. With quarreling males and harsh, mid-day light, I had only a few good looks on this first day, but it was enough to make me come back.

A week later, I returned with friends and we were greeted with soft, overcast skies for most of the morning. This time, we needed to move farther down as to find a bird who was not currently defending territory. As luck would have it, we came across the male and female foraging right along the road. The male was kind enough to land atop a few open perches as he sung to spook would be intruders. After singing from one of these close perches, he would head deeper into the field behind where we heard sing for quite some time before returning. After getting some shots from the side of the road, I headed up a trail into denser vegetation. I had hoped to get farther into this pairs territory as to find him on more singing perches. After coming around a bend, I found him singing near a lone, short conifer growing into the side of a pine. This conifer, which I believe may be balsam fir, sat on the border of yet another Golden-winged Warbler’s territory. As a result, the first male would perch atop the tree and sing from it. If the neighboring male came close, the local male would dive lower into the fir to get a closer look.

Nikon Z9 with the NIKKOR 500mm f/4G VR @ 1/1250 - f/4 - ISO 640

I managed to get a few shots of the first male as he investigated his romantic rival from the edges of that fir. One of my favorite features of these trees, is how they provide a darker background. Birds really pop when photographed along the edge of a coniferous branch. There are some species that are more commonly found in these trees, but Golden-wings are not a bird I generally associate with conifers. This made the situation quite special for me. Another thing I love about these trees, is their ability to naturally frame the subject. The dark background mentioned above it great for isolating your subject, but the edges of nearby branches growing into the light adds a natural frame around the bird, drawing your eyes to the subject itself.

I feel very fortunate to have had such a fun experience photographing these birds. As you do this more and more, you start to come to terms with the concept that nothing is guaranteed. I’ve driven hours for only one or two mediocre shots, but that’s all part of the game. That’s what makes it a challenge to photograph these birds. If it were easy to do, everyone would do it. With that said, there are times where things just go smoothly, and I’m happy to say that this is exactly how this day went. I am very lucky to live in an area where so many warbler species nest. In one direction, I have access to southern species, and in the other, northern species. This gives me the opportunity to photograph them for most of April through May each spring, and allows me to hone my skills so that I may return to try again better next year. With that, I bid these colorful songbirds farewell until next year.