Kirtland's Warbler

Setophaga kirtlandii

Kirtland's warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii), which is recorded to have been known by local folk in Michigan by the common name jack pine bird, and is also known as the jack pine warbler, is a small songbird of the New World warbler family (Parulidae), named after Jared Potter Kirtland, an Ohio doctor and amateur naturalist. Nearly extinct just 50 years ago, it is well on its way to recovery. It requires large areas, greater than 160 acres (65 hectares), of dense young jack pine for its breeding habitat. This habitat was historically created by wildfire, but today is created through the harvest of mature jack pine, and planting of jack pine seedlings.

The population of the species spends the spring and summer in their breeding range in Ontario, Wisconsin or Michigan, especially the northeastern Lower Peninsula of Michigan, and winters in The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.