Vermivora chrysoptera

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Taxonomy [top]

Assessment Information [top]

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description:	Vermivora chrysoptera breeds from southern Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec (Canada), and northern New York, southern Vermont and eastern Massachusetts (USA), south through the eastern USA to Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina2. Birds winter from the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico and Belize) and Guatemala south through El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama to northern and eastern Colombia and northern Venezuela2; wintering birds are occasionally recorded from the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Puerto Rico1. It breeds in open deciduous woodland, secondary growth, brushy pastures and bogs2, apparently favouring a particular stage in woodland succession3. Although it had increased and expanded its distribution for more than a century, evidence from the North American Breeding Birds Survey suggests that it is declining in its southern range, from Georgia to New England (where decline has been particularly severe)5. It has shown a population increase over the last c.30 years in the northern part of its breeding range3,5, but a recent population decline has been identified7. Estimates suggest a current population of c. 210,000 birds6. Local declines correlate with advancing succession and reforestation, and the invasive range expansion of Blue-winged Warbler Vermivora pinus4. Other possible causes of population declines are loss of wintering habitat (especially forest edge and open woodland), nest parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbird Molothrus ater and hybridisation with V. pinus4.
Countries:	Native: Belize; Canada; Colombia; Costa Rica; Cuba; Dominican Republic; Ecuador; El Salvador; Guatemala; Haiti; Honduras; Jamaica; Mexico; Nicaragua; Panama; Puerto Rico; United States; Venezuela; Virgin Islands, British; Virgin Islands, U.S. Vagrant: Barbados; French Polynesia; Netherlands Antilles; Trinidad and Tobago; United Kingdom
Range Map:	(click map to view full version)

Population [top]

Population:	Rich et al. PIF North American Landbirds Conservation Plan (2004).
Population Trend:	Decreasing

Habitat and Ecology [top]