Vermivora bachmanii: Last Seen in 1988 Bachman's Warbler Perhaps in Cuba 2002

Summary: Known commonly as Bachman's warbler, Vermivora bachmanii is a small New World passerine last seen in 1988. A possible sighting in Cuba in 2002 revives hope.

Bachman's warbler: Jerry A. Payne, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0 United States, via Forestry Images

Vermivora bachmanii is a New World warbler native to the southern United States.

Breeding homelands especially occur in the tri-state area of southeastern Missouri, southwestern Kentucky and northeastern Arkansas, as well as in south central Alabama and in southeastern South Carolina.

Winter homelands favor Cuba and Isla de la Juventud ("Isle of Youth"), largest island in Cuba's Canarreos Archipelago.

Migrants also are associated with the Florida Keys.

The olive-and-yellow themed warbler was named by America's pioneer naturalist and painter, John James Audubon (April 26, 1785-Jan. 27, 1851). The species name, bachmanii, honors Lutheran minister and naturalist John Bachman (Feb. 4, 1790-Feb. 24, 1874).

The specimen described by J.J. Audubon was collected in July 1833 by Reverend Bachman in a swamp near Charleston, southeastern coastal South Carolina.

Vermivora bachmanii is known commonly as Bachman's warbler.

Bachman's warbler is a small passerine bird with an unknown lifespan. Its total length measures around 4 inches (10-plus centimeters).

As a passerine (Latin: passer, "sparrow"), Bachman's warbler has feet specialized for perching, with three toes pointing forward and one directed backward.

The petite percher presents an overall palette of olive and yellow. The upperparts, especially the back, wings and rump, are olive green, while underparts, especially the belly, are yellow.

Blackened throat and forecrown in males contrast with their olive-gray rear crown and nape.

Grayness of crown and nape prevail in females.

A distinctive anatomical feature of these winsome warblers is the silhouette of their slender bill. The culmen (Latin: culmen, "top"), which is the dorsal, or upper, part of the beak, curves downward to form a decurved bill.

Females and males sing a buzzy series of notes that are heard as pulsating zeep sounds.

Once considered as the seventh most common migrant along the lower Suwannee River in north central Florida, Bachman's warblers experienced declining population estimates throughout the first half of the 20th century.

After the passage of the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, the Secretary of the Interior listed Vermivora bachmanii as a federally endangered species on March 11, 1967.

Vermivora bachmanii's last confirmed sighting occurred in August 1988 at northeastern Louisiana's Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge in a bottomland hardwood forest habitat with a dense canebrake, or thicket, of river cane (Arundinaria gigantea), one of their favorite nesting species.

On Jan. 14, 2002, a songbird was filmed in Guardalavaca, in Cuba's southeastern Holguín province, by Manfred Sievert, who identifies the avifauna as Bachman's warbler.

On a visit to central New York's Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, Arturo Kirkconnell (born Oct. 31, 1959), curator of the Ornithology Department at Cuba's National Museum of Natural History, determined that the identification was inconclusive.

Despite the gloomy suspicion of extinction, hope lingers that populations, albeit dwindling, exist in inaccessible, unsurveyed strongholds in the United States. Possible locations where Bachman's warblers may exist include Congaree National Park in central South Carolina and I'On Swamp in southeastern South Carolina's Frances Marion National Forest.

Giant cane (Arundinaria gigantea), favorite nesting species for critically endangered Bachman's warbler: James H. Miller & Ted Bodner, Southern Weed Science Society, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0 United States, via Forestry Images

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Bachman's warbler: Jerry A. Payne, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0 United States, via Forestry Images @ http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=2513014

Giant cane (Arundinaria gigantea): James H. Miller & Ted Bodner, Southern Weed Science Society, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0 United States, via Forestry Images @ http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=1120624

For further information:

"Bachman's Warblier Vermivora bachmanii." US Fish and Wildlife Service ECOS (Environmental Conservation Online System) > Species Profile.
Available @ https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/profile/speciesProfile?spcode=B03G

EuDaly, Edwin; Kelly Bibb. Bachman's Warbler (Vermivora bachmanii) 5-Year Review: Summary and Evaluation." Charleston SC: US Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region Ecological Services, 2007, 2015.
Available @ https://ecos.fws.gov/docs/five_year_review/doc1037.pdf

Marriner, Derdriu. "Arundinaria gigantea: Giant Cane as North American Native Bamboo." Earth and Space News. Tuesday, March 31, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/03/arundinaria-gigantea-giant-cane-as.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Cherokee River Cane Baskets: Arundinaria gigantea Double Weave Unique Designs." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, April 1, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/04/cherokee-river-cane-baskets-arundinaria.html

Rosenberg, Ken. "Video of Mystery Warbler From Cuba." Birds: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology > Bachman > Education.
Available @ http://www.birds.cornell.edu/bachman/mysterywarbler.html

USFWS South Florida Ecological Services Field Office. "Bachman's Warbler Vermivora bachmanii." US Fish and Wildlife Service > Vero Beach > South Florida Multi-Species Recovery Plan.
Available @ https://www.fws.gov/verobeach/MSRPPDFs/Bachmanswarbler.pdf