Working on behalf of Cerulean Warblers

Abstract

What was mother nature thinking when she assigned ecological traits to this bird? She should have known that any species sensitive to forest fragmentation was destined to struggle. The cerulean Warbler navigates perhaps the longest migratory path of any North American Neotropical songbird. Why it should breed most effectively in Appalachian habitats where all that coal rests, awaiting extraction to fuel lights, computers, and schools? The warbler could have picked more benevolent landlords than armed groups who control much of Colombia's forests and coca crops. Even in safer Andean terrain, these birds encounter dense human populations intense land use such as cultivation of coffee.

Citation

Hamel, Paul B. 2009. Working on behalf of Cerulean Warblers. Jack-pine warbler 86(3):6-7.