Which Migrating Birds Appreciate the Flourishing Wildflowers and Grasses of Somme Woods?

When restoration began, the ground under the trees was bare. 

This post was inspired by the impressive abundance of migrating birds on September 24, 2024. (We'll touch on breeding birds later in the post.) 

Not that most people would notice them. The little insect-eating migrants were mostly obscured by vegetation or moving so fast, flitting from flower to flower and stem to stem that even with binoculars I missed most of them. But in a few minutes I identified and counted twenty migrating warblers of five species, and they carry a message.

The most abundant was the Nashville warbler with eleven individuals. Unusual for migrants, this species retains its dramatic spring plumage: yellow breast, white eye-ring, and blue-gray head. Like many warblers, they're mostly coming from Canada and heading for Central America or the Caribbean or the Amazon for the winter.

Nashville Warbler

Second most common were the black-throated green warblers (4 individuals identified) and the western palm warblers (3 individuals) - two species which typically spend their migration hunting time in very different habitats.  

Black-throated Green Warbler

In the past I mostly remember seeing the black-throated green high in mature trees. But today, hungry for insect fuel to power their long flights, they seemed to be going where the most food was. I saw none feeding up in the trees. They hovered in front of flowers or jumped from stem to stem. 

In contrast, the western palm warblers spend their summers in open bogs and their migration in prairies, fields, and dunes. Here they were in the herb understory of the woods, where I also saw one yellow-rumped warbler.

The other migrating warbler I saw today was one ovenbird. These handsome stripey-breasted characters hunt mostly on the ground in mature forest under thick shrubs. Or herbs? I've wondered if they might even return to nest here, as the habitat improves.  

Overbird

The wildflowers and grasses all these birds flitted among included elm-leaved goldenrod, Short's aster, wood reed, silky rye, and woodland thistle. 

In summer, the birds we see most commonly feeding in the wildflowers and grasses are the indigo bunting, yellowthroat, and bluebird. Actually the bluebird perches on a low tree branch and watches like a hawk, until it sees a tasty bug and plunges down into the herbs to catch it. Once I was surprised to see a pair of scarlet tanagers flitting from flower to grass to flower, feeding on insects, leaving their high-in-the-trees habitat behind. This is not a common site, but then neither is an oak woods with abundant summer flora. Even the much-commoner-than-before flycatchers - the great crested and the eastern pewee - that spend all their time in the trees may well be feeding largely on insects flying up from their food in the herbs. 

It's a pleasure for many of us to watch this ecosystem get richer and fuller of life, year by year. Somme Woods is a fine example of good work rewarded. 

For fall seed gathering and winter brush cutting with bonfires, check the schedule here. 

For a companion Somme Prairie Grove bird post, click here.

For more on Somme Woods birds, see https://vestalgrove.blogspot.com/2017/06/birds-moving-into-open-woods.html 

and 

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2018/04/breeding-bird-revival-after-habitat.html.

Acknowledgements

Mourning warbler photo from A-Z Animals

Other photo credits: All About Birds (Cornel Lab or Ornithology)