Kirtland's Warbler: A superhero without a cape

(Imagine dramatic movie music playing.)

"These trees are dying! Who can save us from the scourge of the jack pine budworm? Can anyone help?"

"Look! It's a bird! It's not a plane! It's ... Kirtland's Warbler to the rescue!"

Yeah, we're being dramatic here, but not overly so. That's because if you've been in the jack pine recently, you may have noticed that some jack pine and red pine trees are turning brown and look like they are dying. That's because the trees are being damaged by an outbreak of jack pine budworm.

The budworm is the larvae of a moth that doesn't really have a name other than its scientific name -- Choristoneura pinus. It seems odd that the moth would be better known by the immature version of itself, but it's that immature version -- the larvae -- that makes this species significant.

The jack pine budworm is always present in the jack pine forests, but it's also cyclical. Outbreaks occur every six to 12 years or so, and right now we are in the second year of an outbreak that started in 2022.

A jack pine budworm outbreak is bad news for jack pines because, according to the Michigan DNR, the budworms "feed off needles on jack pine and red pine trees, leaving trees defoliated and causing die-back among the crowns of trees. Clipped and damaged needles turn reddish brown in early July, making the damage very apparent. Over time, rain and wind remove the dead needles, leaving trees with a bare, grayish appearance."

We've had conversations with skeptics who have wondered why the state and federal governments would spend so much money and put so much effort into saving a bird from extinction. What difference does one bird make? Well, a jack pine budworm outbreak makes a pretty compelling case for saving the Kirtland's.

Jack pine is a commodity. Timber companies want to buy the highest quality product possible. Jack pine budworms damage the tops of trees, stunting growth and lowering their value.

Kirtland's Warblers, meanwhile, love to eat jack pine budworms and feed them to their young. Birds in general are opportunistic eaters. If there's a jack pine budworm outbreak it just means there's more to go around. Ultimately, by eating the budworms, the Kirtland's Warblers help control the outbreak and limit the damage to the marketable trees. Without the birds doing the work for them, the state and federal governments might be forced to use chemicals to control the outbreaks. And that's something to be avoided because there are all kinds of unintended consequences with that.

The attached video seems to show a Kirtland's Warbler with two jack pine budworms in his beak. (We say "seems" because we're not 100 percent certain. But they sure look like jack pine budworm larvae.) The late Ron Austing captured the video, and it is likely that that male Kirtland's was on his way to feed his offspring.

The Kirtland's Warbler has always been special to us because it's just a cool bird. It's rare, it lives in an usual place, and it has an unusual life story. And on top of all of that, it's also a superhero.

Thank you, Kirtland's Warblers!

We do believe we're been seen...

Yay! Our work on behalf of Kirtland's Warbler conservation gets a shoutout from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. https://www.aza.org/connect-stories/stories/celebrating-50-years-of-the-endangered-species-act-kirtlands-warbler

Okay, to be honest, there are a whole lot of people and organizations who play a role in Kirtland's Warbler conservation, but it sure is nice to be recognized as a key part of the effort!

With our own eyes...

We spent some time in the area of the Wilderness Trail Fire last Friday night and again mid-day on Saturday. It was astonishing and sad to see it with our own eyes.

And yet it was inspiring because life finds a way.

We spent a lot of time on Staley Lake Road and the first impression was the fire must have been incredibly hot in this location because of how black and charred the landscape was -- from ground to treetop. Every step we took through this area threw up a small cloud of ash and our white socks soon became tinged with gray.

The fire also revealed things that had long been hidden by prolific grasses, sedges and blueberries: trash discarded by careless travelers and the charred vertebra of a long-dead white-tailed deer.

One section of Staley Lake Road that overlooks a pothole on the west side of the road allows for a vista of sorts -- the terrain goes down then up in the distance. Even though nearly everything in sight was burned, it was clear that the fire did not burn evenly or run in a straight line. The second image shows that some trees that had been killed by the fire still held onto their now-brown needles while the needles on other trees burned completely. In the late evening sun, it was striking and oddly beautiful.

We were also surprised by how much life there was in the aftermath of the fire. Clearly the Kirtland's Warblers have abandoned the stand, but we recorded more than 20 species of birds in the fire area on Friday evening, including Eastern Towhee, Vesper Sparrow, Black-capped Chickadee and Hermit Thrush. Because the fire only burned plants on the surface, any ants underground could emerge after the fire to act as nature's cleanup crew. And only two weeks after the fire, plants were emerging from their roots and some areas were surprisingly green. On Saturday we found a white-tailed deer grazing on these freshly emerged shoots.

Maybe the best sign that this ecosystem would recover was the open jack pine cones with seeds smattered on the charred forest floor. With a little rain, these seeds will soon germinate.

Unfortunately many of the jack pines that died in the fire were too young to produce cones so those areas will need to be replanted. Over the next few weeks, the DNR will be assessing the damage and determining how to proceed. We should have a better idea of the DNR's plan for recovery by the time the Kirtland's Warbler Conservation Team meets in mid-July.

The Wilderness Trail Fire is a reminder of how the plants and animals on the jack pine outwash plains of northern Michigan exist on the edge. The ecosystem can provide a comfortable living for species that can adapt to the disruption of fire and accept the inherent risk. It seems the Kirtland's Warblers are aware of those risks and accept them as a cost of doing business. The area of the 2010 Meridian Boundary Fire is packed with Kirtland's Warblers right now and it's just a matter of a few years before Kirtland's Warblers return to nest in the area of the Wilderness Trail Fire.

We'll visit this area again next month to see how it's progressing and bring you another update.