Cerulean Warblers Are March Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar

Summary: Cerulean warblers are March birds on the 2022 Audubon calendar on which the National Audubon Society assembles 12 vulnerable avians in North America.

Male and female cerulean warblers appear as No. 10, Plate XLVIII (48), in The Birds of America From Original Drawings (1827-1830), vol. 1, by John James Audubon (April 26, 1785-Jan. 27, 1851): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Cerulean warblers are March birds on the 2022 Audubon calendar on which the National Audubon Society assembles North America’s vulnerable avians abiding in, or accessing from Canada and Mexico, the United States.

Springtime and summertime backyard bee, bird and butterfly feeders bear what brings in edible insects and such insect predators as beetle-, caterpillar-, fly-, weevil-battling cerulean warblers. The Passeriformes (from Latin passer, “sparrow” and -fōrmēs, “-shaped”) perching-bird and songbird order member cherishes breeder-friendly dense, mature forests; migrant-friendly dense woodlands; and overwinterer-friendly evergreen forests. Woodiness draws that order’s Parulidae (from Latin parus, “chickadee, titmouse” and -ula, “little” and Greek -ειδής, “-like” via Latin -idæ) New World- and wood-warbler family member.

Physically and sexually mature one-, one-plus-year-old female cerulean warblers establish cup-like nests during breeding-season months, May through July, in moist bottomlands, open woodlands and wooded swamps.

Fruiting moss stem- and hair-lined nests fashioned from spiderweb-bound bark fibers and shreds, fine grasses, lichens and mosses fit onto branches and forks far from trunks.

Adult female cerulean warblers gestate one annual brood of 2 to 5 cream-, gray- or green-white, fine- to heavy-marked, semi-glossy, smooth, sub-elliptical to short sub-elliptical eggs. The 17- by 13-millimeter (0.67- by 0.51-inch) eggs have brown-gray-white, brown-purple, brown-red and chestnut-red blotches, speckles and spots heading all over or toward their larger ends. Cerulean warbler mothers-to-be incubate their annual clutch for 12 to 13 days at 15- to 100-foot (4.57- to 30.48-meter) heights above bottomland, swampland or woodland floors.

Cerulean warblers join, as March birds, the 2022 Audubon calendar of North American vulnerable birds journeying between the United States and Caribbean, Central and South America.

Six-year lifespans kindle cerulean warbler mothers-to-be perhaps keeping their eggs safe and warm on their own and their hatchlings and nestlings fed with their mates helping.

Cerulean warbler fathers-to-be and mothers-to-be locate brooding, hatching, nestling nests amid so many large leaves, so high up, that leave ornithologists with more questions than answers. Annual brood members most likely move from egg stages into nestling stages as altricial (helpless, from Latin altrix, “nourisher”) hatchlings with closed eyes and naked bodies. The first part of 9 to 11 nestling days nets them black irises; buff-pink bills, feet and legs; and brown-gray to whitened, yellowed brown-gray downy coats.

The 2022 Audubon calendar offers as March birds mature cerulean warblers whose post-downy flight feathers and wing bones and muscles occasion direct, rapid-wingbeat, semi-undulating flight patterns.

Cerulean warblers, Setophaga cerulea (from Greek σής, “moth” and φάγος, “glutton” and from Latin caeruleus, “sky-blue”) scientifically, present blue-green-crowned, green-mantled, yellow-breasted and throated females and juveniles.

Mature males quarter black-banded white throats; blue upperparts; black-streaked, dual white-barred blue-gray wings; black-streaked blue-gray flanks; white bellies and under-tail feathers; and white-banded, short, blue tails. Cerulean warblers, researched by Alexander Wilson (July 6, 1766-Aug. 23, 1813), reveal 4.75-inch (12-centimeter) lengths, 7.75-inch (19.5-centimeter) wingspans and 9/32- to 3/8-ounce (8- to 10-gram) weights. They serialize buzzy, low-paired, three-part songs succeeded by a mid-range trill and a high-pitched, upslurred zhree and sound buzzy zeet flight calls and slurred chip calls.

Cerulean warblers travel from Colombian, Ecuadorian and Peruvian foothills to the Unitedstatesian northeast as March birds for the 2022 Audubon calendar and for their breeding season.

Distribution map of Cerulean Warbler shows breeding range (orange), migration range (yellow), wintering range (blue), June 5, 2022: Sub31k, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Male and female cerulean warblers appear as No. 10, Plate XLVIII (48), in The Birds of America From Original Drawings (1827-1830), vol. 1, by John James Audubon (April 26, 1785-Jan. 27, 1851): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:"Azure_Warbler"_in_Audubon's_Birds_of_America.jpg; No copyright, via Cincinnati Public Library @ https://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/digital/collection/p16998coll33/search/searchterm/V.01/field/source/mode/all/conn/and/order/file/page/1 (main page); No copyright, via Cincinnati Public Library @ https://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/digital/collection/p16998coll33/id/49/rec/50 (specific image URL)

Distribution map of Cerulean Warbler shows breeding range (orange), migration range (yellow), wintering range (blue), June 5, 2022: Sub31k, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Setophaga_cerulea_map.svg

For further information:

Baicich, Paul J.; and Colin J. O. Harrison. 2005. "Cerulean Warbler (Dendroica cerulea)." Page 282. In: Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Second edition. Princeton NJ; and Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England: Princeton University Press.

Bull, John; and John Farrand, Jr. 1997. "Cerulean Warbler (Dendroica cerulea)." Page 675. In: National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region. Revised by John Farrand, Jr. Second edition. A Chanticleer Press Edition. New York NY: Borzoi Book, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; and Toronto [Ontario, Canada]: Random House of Canada Limited.

"Cerulean Warbler Dendroica cerulea." Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission > How Can We Help You? > Discover Wildlife > Wildlife Viewing > Additional Wildlife Viewing Resources > Species Profiles > Showing All 406 Species.
Available @ https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/birds/songbirds/cerulean-warbler/

Howell, Catherine Herbert (Writer); and Mary B. Dickinson (Editor). 1999. "Cerulean Warbler Dendroica cerulea L." Pages 374-375. Field Guide to the Birds of North America. Third Edition. Washington DC: National Geographic Society.

Marriner, Derdriu. 5 February 2022. "Northern Bobwhites Are February Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/02/northern-bobwhites-are-february-birds.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 1 January 2022. "Florida Scrub-Jays Are January Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/01/florida-scrub-jays-are-january-birds-on.html

Mertz, Leslie Ann. 2002. "Cerulean warbler Dendroica cerulea." Pages 298-299. In: Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volume 11, Birds IV, edited by Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group.

Peterson, Roger Tory. 2010. "Cerulean Warbler Dendroica cerulea." Pages 276-277. In: Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America. With contributions from Michael Di Giorgio, Paul Lehman, Michael O'Brien and Jeffrey A. Gordon, Larry Rosche, [and] Bill Thompson. Sixth Edition. Boston MA; and New York NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Peterson, Roger Tory. 1947. "Cerulean Warbler. Dendroica cerulea." Pages 144-145. In: A Field Guide to the Birds Giving Field Marks of all Species Found East of the Rockies. The Peterson Field Guide Series. Second Revised and Enlarged Edition. Boston MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Robbins, Chandler S., Bertel Bruun, with Herbert S. Zim. 1983. "Cerulean Warbler Dendroíca cerúlea." Pages 282-283. In: Birds of North America. A Guide to Field Identification. New York NY: Golden Press; and Racine WI: Western Publishing Company.

Stokes, Donald and Lillian. 1996. "Cerulean Warbler Dendroica cerulea." Page 374. In: Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region. Boston [MA]; New York [NY]; Toronto [Ontario, Canada]; and London [England UK]: Little, Brown and Company.