Dendroica kirtlandii

– Near Threatened

Taxonomy

Kingdom:	ANIMALIA
Phylum:	CHORDATA
Class:	AVES
Order:	PASSERIFORMES
Family:	PARULIDAE
Scientific Name:	Dendroica kirtlandii
Species Authority:	(Baird, 1852)
Common Name/s:	KIRTLAND'S WARBLER (Eng)

Assessment Information

Red List Category & Criteria:

NT ver 3.1 (2001)

Year Assessed:

2005

Assessor/s:

BirdLife International

Evaluator/s:

Butchart, S. & Wege, D. (BirdLife International Red List Authority)

Justification:

Since 1987, conservation action has successfully increased the population of this species. Numbers exceeded 500 singing males in 1994 following doubling of suitably aged habitat between 1987 and 1990. Its occupied breeding and wintering ranges are now considered large enough to warrant downlisting this species to Near Threatened. Almost qualifies for threatened under criteria D2.

History:

1988	-	Threatened (Collar and Andrew 1988)
1994	-	Vulnerable (Collar, Crosby and Stattersfield 1994)
2000	-	Vulnerable (BirdLife International 2000)
2004	-	Vulnerable (BirdLife International 2004)

Geographic Range

Range Description:

Dendroica kirtlandii breeds in north and central Michigan, with small numbers (and occasional breeding) in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Wisconsin, USA. Singing males have been recorded in Ontario and Quebec, Canada^1,8,11,14. Breeding habitat has declined by 33% since the 1960s, but is more extensive than the 18 km² occupied in 1994⁹. It has a very small winter range in the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands (to UK), either concentrated in the northern islands or spread throughout the Bahama Archipelago^5,12. There were major declines in c.1900-1920 and 1961-1971⁵, with the population just 167 singing males in 1974 and 1987². Numbers have recovered to 1,202 singing males in Michigan in 2003, the highest since surveys began in 1951⁷.

Range Map:

(click for detailed map)

Countries:

Native:

Bahamas; Mexico; Turks and Caicos Islands; United States

Vagrant:

Bermuda

Uncertain presence and origin:

Canada

Population

Population Trend:

Habitat and Ecology

Habitat and Ecology:

Optimal breeding habitat is fire-maintained homogeneous stands of 2-4 m tall jack pines Pinus banksiana on sandy soil^8,11. Eggs are laid in May-June³. Wintering habitat is either primarily Caribbean pine P. caribbaea⁵, or natural and secondary scrub, and saline/upland ecotone¹².

System:

Terrestrial

List of Habitats:

1.4	Forest - Temperate
1.5	Forest - Subtropical/Tropical Dry
3.4	Shrubland - Temperate
3.5	Shrubland - Subtropical/Tropical Dry

Threats

Threats:

If scrub is the preferred winter habitat, key threats are fire suppression and brood-parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds Molothrus ater in Michigan¹². If Caribbean pine is preferred, habitat loss on the wintering ground is probably more important⁵. The latter is considered likely because of the failure to occupy all breeding habitat, and changes in population have occurred contemporaneously with the degradation and recovery of the north Bahamas pine ecosystem⁵. Recently however the four-fold population increase between 1990 and 2000, coincident with a tripling of the available habitat through management, would appear to indicate that currently population levels are closely linked to habitat availability¹⁴. Consequentially, the current breeding range is too large for fire to affect the whole population rapidly.

List of Threats:

1.8	Habitat Loss/Degradation - Other causes (ongoing)
1.9	Habitat Loss/Degradation - Unknown causes (ongoing)
8.8	Changes in native species dynamics - Unknown (ongoing)

Conservation Actions

Conservation Actions:

Conservation measures underway:
CMS Appendix I. Management replicating the effects of natural fires has expanded potential breeding habitat to c.516 km² ^10,11. Since 1972, a cowbird trapping programme has reduced parasitism from 70% to 3%². Education and ecotourism initiatives in Michigan include an annual Kirtland's Warbler Festival¹⁰. Surveys have been undertaken in the Bahamas, most recently in 1998^4,5. There is a project in progress to establish the principal wintering habitat⁶.

Conservation measures proposed:
Ascertain winter habitat requirements. Continue existing initiatives - this will need $1 million per year to maintain¹³. Research the effects of management on breeding ecology¹¹. Implement prescribed burning for all breeding habitat¹¹. This is not possible in many areas, where it has been replaced by commercial clearouts, followed by a replant or reseed¹³. Increase the area of jack pine - this is difficult to maintain due to the cost, and its future is uncertain because of the loss of the carbon sequestration program¹³. Investigate more economical cowbird control¹¹.

List of Conservation Actions:

3.3	Research actions - Biology and Ecology (needed)
4.1	Habitat and site-based actions - Maintenance/Conservation (needed)
4.2	Habitat and site-based actions - Restoration (needed)
5.4	Species-based actions - Recovery management (needed)

Bibliography

Bibliography:

Baillie, J. and Groombridge, B. (compilers and editors) 1996. 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Bird Reference Citations. The numbers inserted in the text accounts above (usually in bold) refer to references. For further details on these references, click on the BirdLife International link above to go to the specific species account on the BirdLife web site. In some cases, particularly in the taxonomic notes, the references are cited using the author names. Details for these can be found on the BirdLife International web site at the following two places: For References from A–L. For References from M–Z.

BirdLife International. 2000. Threatened Birds of the World. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, U.K.

BirdLife International. 2004 Threatened Birds of the World 2004. CD-ROM. BirdLife International, Cambridge, U.K.

BirdLife International. 2005. Threatened Birds of the World 2005. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 30/04/2005.

Collar, N.J. and Andrew, P. 1988. Birds to Watch. The ICBP World Checklist of Threatened Birds. ICBP Technical Publication No. 8. Page Bros. (Norwich) Ltd, Norfolk, England.

Collar, N.J., Crosby, M.J. and Stattersfield, A.J. 1994. Birds to Watch 2. The World List of Threatened Birds BirdLife International. Page Bros (Norwich) Ltd, U.K.

IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre. 1986. 1986 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN. 1990. 1990 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Scott, P. (ed.) 1965. Section XIII. Preliminary List of Rare Mammals and Birds. In: The Launching of a New Ark, pp. 15–207. First Report of the President and Trustees of the World Wildlife Fund. An International Foundation for saving the world's wildlife and wild places 1961–1964. Collins, London.

Citation:	BirdLife International 2005. Dendroica kirtlandii. In: IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 05 July 2008.
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