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Dendroica cerulea
– Vulnerable
Taxonomy
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Kingdom:
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ANIMALIA
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Phylum:
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CHORDATA
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Class:
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AVES
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Order:
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PASSERIFORMES
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Family:
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PARULIDAE
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Scientific Name:
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Dendroica cerulea
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Species Authority:
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(Wilson, 1810)
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Common Name/s:
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Assessment Information
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Red List Category & Criteria:
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VU A2bc+3bc ver 3.1 (2001)
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Year Assessed:
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2004
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Assessor/s:
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BirdLife International
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Evaluator/s:
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Pople, R. & Butchart, S. (BirdLife International Red List Authority)
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Justification:
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This species has been uplisted to Vulnerable, because its population is now estimated to have undergone a very rapid decline, owing to continuing habitat loss and fragmentation on its breeding grounds.
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History:
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| 1988 | - | Lower Risk/least concern (BirdLife International 2004) |
| 1994 | - | Lower Risk/least concern (BirdLife International 2004) |
| 2000 | - | Lower Risk/least concern (BirdLife International 2000) |
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Geographic Range
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Range Description:
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Dendroica cerulea breeds from Quebec and Ontario (Canada), east to Nebraska and south to northern Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia (USA)1. A four year study from 1997-2000 identified several seemingly key sites that support large populations4. These included the Cumberland Mountains northwest of Knoxville, Tennessee; the Montezuma wetlands complex and adjacent areas in central New York; the Kaskaskia River Valley and Shawnee National Forest in south eastern Illinois; the Jefferson Proving Ground of southern Indiana: Queens University Biological Station in south eastern Ontario; the Kalamazoo River of south western Michigan; the Eleven Point and Upper Current rivers in Missouri; the Shenendoah National Park and Blue Ridge Highway in western Virginia; and the Delaware River Valley and adjacent highlands of north western New Jersey. These areas may represent primary areas for population monitoring and conservation4. It migrates south through the south-eastern USA, the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, the Caribbean slope of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama, and winters from Colombia and Venezuela south, mainly east of the Andes, to eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru and perhaps northern Bolivia1. Breeding Bird Survey results show declines equating to 26% per decade over the period 1980-2002, but longer-term declines are even more severe7.
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Range Map:
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 (click for detailed map)
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Countries:
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Native:
Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; Bolivia; Canada; Colombia; Costa Rica; Cuba; Ecuador; Guatemala; Honduras; Jamaica; Mexico; Panama; Peru; United States; Venezuela
Vagrant:
Brazil; Cayman Islands; Netherlands Antilles; Puerto Rico; Trinidad and Tobago
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Habitat and Ecology
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Habitat and Ecology:
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Breeds in mature deciduous forest1,2, often in the vicinity of swamps3. Migrating birds are recorded from a variety of forest woodland, secondary growth and scrub habitats1. Wintering birds are found in Andean submontane forest, mainly between 500 and 2,000 m3. The nest is built on the branch of a tree, and breeding takes place between May and July3.
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System:
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Terrestrial
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Threats
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Threats:
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Degradation of habitat through land use change is the major threat to this species. Conversion of mature deciduous forest to agricultural or urban areas, fragmentation and increasing isolation of remaining mature deciduous forest, the change to shorter rotation periods and even-aged management, and loss of key tree species to disease are all breeding season constraints5. Wintering habitat is also threatened by conversion to other land uses such as pastureland and farms, and is converted into coca plantations which have a detrimental effect on suitable primary forest habitat. Attempts to eradicate coca plantations will also potentially damage forests5. Mountaintop mining constitutes a known but as yet uncontrolled threat6.
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Conservation Actions
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Conservation Actions:
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Conservation measures underway:
Current activities include planning projects that use estimates of minimum tract size for the species as criteria for habitat acquisition and protection, land protection and acquistion projects to increase the amount of forest in certain areas such as the Interior Low Plateaus and Coastal Plain of Tennessee, and the Cerulean Warbler Atlas Project, an information gathering project managed by Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology5.
Conservation measures proposed:
Understand fully the requirements of the species in terms of ideal or high quality breeding habitat. Develop and test forest-stand management techniques that result in "ideal" or "high quality" habitat. Protect intact primary forest ecosystems to maintain wintering populations.
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