Kentucky Warbler

Overview

Kentucky Warbler: Medium, ground-dwelling warbler with bright olive-green upperparts and yellow underparts. Head has black mask and sideburns and thick yellow eyebrows. Bill is black, legs and feet are pink. Secretive, heard rather than seen. It is named for the state where it was first discovered.

Range and Habitat

Kentucky Warbler: Breeds from Iowa and Indiana east to New Jersey, and south to the southeastern U.S. Spends winters in the tropics. Preferred habitats include low, moist, rich woodlands with luxuriant undergrowth.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Kentucky Warbler was named for the state where it was discovered in 1811 by Alexander Wilson.
A major threat to their habitat in many areas is the often complete loss of understory vegetation across broad areas caused by an over-abundant White-tailed Deer population.
Breeding Bird Survey data show a statistically significant 1% per year decline between 1966-2001 across its entire U.S. range. A group of Kentucky Warblers are collectively known as a "Derby" of warblers.

The Kentucky Warbler is native to many parts of the world other than Kentucky. This bird is native to the Caribbean, Canada, Cuba, Central America and the Netherlands. The range of the Kentucky Warbler is estimated at around 2 million square kilometers. The population of this bird species is about 1 million individual birds. The prior rating for the Kentucky Warbler was Lower Risk, which was downgraded to Least Concern in 2004. At this time, there are not any threats facing the range or the population of the Kentucky Warbler.