Lucy's Warbler Nest Sites

Lucy’s Warblers are a species of conservation concern here in Nevada.  A small, cavity-nesting warbler, in Nevada they’re found primarily in riparian areas and mesquite woodlands. They typically nest between 0.6 and 6m above ground, in a wide variety of locations, from crevices formed by loose bark, to natural cavities, to old woodpecker cavities – even (rarely) crevices or burrows in rocks or banks [1].

I’ve been fortunate over the past two years to find and photograph several Lucy’s Warblers nest locations at Warm Springs Natural Area.  Unfortunately, they’ve all been too high and/or too hidden to actually get photos of the nest itself – so no cute pictures of nestlings, I’m afraid!  However, I thought these might be useful to help develop your own search image for Lucy’s nests.  Playing about online, I also found a short video of a Lucy’s Warbler building a nest (aka entering a cavity with fluff), that I thought folks might enjoy. 

Okay, on to pictures!

This first one exemplifies the nests that were in the burned screwbean mesquites, with the Lucy’s Warblers building in “cavities” created by peeling bark.

The next 3 pictures show Lucy’s Warbler nest locations behind peeling bark in burned-over cottonwoods.  In the third set, this nest was located in the same tree as a Western Kingbird nest.  The Kingbirds lived up to their genus name, Tyrannus, and were very territorial.  On one occasion, I watched the Kingbirds prevent the Lucy’s Warbler pair from bringing food to their nestlings for over 3 minutes (and I’d arrived in the midst of their dispute and been watching for some time before I thought to look at my watch!).  

This nest location in a burned cottonwood was featured in a previous post, and the nesting attempt was evidently abandoned.  Two other species  began nesting in this snag, as well: Brown-crested Flycatcher, and Western Kingbird.  These also abandoned their attempts.  This could be chance (I did see several other nesting attempts by Lucy’s Warblers and Western Kingbirds that didn’t go anywhere), or perhaps the lack of shading from any other vegetation led to it being too hot, or [insert your explanation here!].  On the other hand, it was the most heavily-used perch tree on my plot, by a wide variety of species!

Below is a Lucy’s Warbler nesting site behind some peeling bark of a burned-over cottonwood that is resprouting.  This tree served as a nest site for 2 successive years; in the second year, the new growth had become tall enough to hide the site from view.

Last, but not least, is a Lucy’s Warbler nest location within a natural cavity within an ash.  I had walked by this location numerous times during my surveys, without realizing the nest was there – on this survey, the pair was bringing food, and the nestlings were creating a racket!  (You can see feces on the nest’s rim, from either older nestlings or the female.)

 

Well, that's the end of my photos - happy nest finding!

- Jen

 [1] Johnson, R. Roy, Helen K. Yard and Bryan T. Brown. 1997. Lucy's Warbler (Oreothlypis luciae), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/318

The Nevada Bird Count 2013 Has Wound Down, Part the Last

And with this installment, I grudgingly admit that the NBC is over for yet another year.  As you probably remember from previous posts, awhile back I asked the crew to shoot me an anecdote from their season, and here’s a final few –

Dennis:  [Becca and I had a] sighting of a Big Horn Sheep at the McCarran Ranch on the morning of our first area search in May. Becca dropped me off at my plot before going across the river to her’s …. I was at the car putting on my boots and gaiters when she came running back yelling “Big Horn Sheep! Big Horn Sheep!” I ran down the dirt road with her past the amphitheater only to see the sheep running away from us east down the road. After Becca left I started down the road again on the way to my plot when I saw the sheep approaching me again. I slowly took off my backpack and got out my camera, but just as I got the camera up to shoot it turned and ran away. I did however get a shot of it running away. I told Chris Sega [The Nature Conservancy] about it and he was quite excited. Apparently Nevada Department of Wildlife released some in the hills to the south of McCarran Ranch and they have been coming down to the river to drink and feed, but this was the first time one had been seen on the north side of the river.

 

Becca:  This was a great year for critters. I was area searching around the McCarrran Ranch east end pond when I came face to face with a skunk. He stopped. I stopped. He stared at me. I stared back. He raised his tail, and I turned my tail around in a hurry. Who was I to interrupt a skunk’s morning stroll?

Laura:  It feels like such a privilege to see what we see and work where we work. Private lands and reservations aside, it's not too terribly difficult to access some of the sites that we do provided you have four wheel drive and the gumption to do so. But most people stay on the beaten path which I suppose is best for us. The wildlife and soaring vistas I've seen on the job, the latter usually earned after an arduous hike, are sights the average person probably never sees. I'm glad to have witnessed them and in some small way aid in making sure they'll remain in good condition for years to come. My two favorite sightings hands down: a roadside Gila Monster and a female Greater Sage-Grouse my partner and I flushed in the Desatoyas.

I just had an interesting realization the other day, as I was writing about my Warm Springs Natural Area territory maps and going through nest photos – I had a snag where I observed 3 different pairs building nests – Brown-crested Flycatcher, Western Kingbird, and Lucy’s Warbler.  And every single one ended up abandoning their nest either late in construction or shortly after nest completion - it's a little hard to tell with cavity-nesters!  This seemed unlikely to have just happened.  I was trying to think about what was special/different about this snag.  It was probably the major perch used by Brown-headed Cowbirds on the plot, but while they could conceivably get past one of the Western Kingbirds (though they’re pretty rare hosts), it’s difficult to see them getting into the Flycatcher’s cavity (I suspect it’s possible, but unlikely, and there are no North American records of them as hosts mentioned in their BNA account), and fitting into that Lucy’s Warbler fissure/cavity was even more unlikely – it was a pretty small opening.  The only other thing I could think of was (well, other than random chance) maybe an ant colony had moved in and swarmed.  I don't remember seeing high levels of ant activity at the snag, but I wasn't really looking, and they're certainly in the area.  Any other ideas?

Western Kingbird nest, mid-construction - bit of an odd location for a Kingbird!

  

Lucy's Warbler nest cavity

Well, that’s it for the anecdotes for this season.  Thanks again to my awesome field crew:  Becca, Brian, Dave, Dennis, Kathryn, Kelly, Laura, Rayann, Russ, Rya, Sam, and Sue.  Seriously, you guys rock beyond the telling of it!

 

Happy birding,

-- Jen