By FRANK BURNS, Correspondent
TOWNSEND – Each year there are two major bird migrations in and out of Wisconsin. The one in the Spring is so dramatic because all the new birds visit as the trees begin to leaf out and the insects hatch and fly into the air. Of all the birds that return to Wisconsin, not only do Warblers feed furiously for a day or so here and then move up North into their breeding grounds, they sing to each other and fill the air with their unique sounds. The other Warbler migration is very swift and occurs before the first snowflake in Autumn as the summer’s hatchings have fledged and the insect population begins to dwindle. All the parenting responsibilities are complete and most of the birdsongs reduced to quick twitters and chirps. One or both of the parents leave Wisconsin first. Then the young follow suit guided by the sun and stars, the land, and their DNA. It is time for Warblers to rest in the warm South, sometimes as far as the Caribbean, Mexico, and South America.
A Warbler is a small, fast moving, insect eating, song bird. These little birds fly great distances on both journeys at the peril of their lives to answer some internal call to promulgate their species and to live lives that seem natural to them.
Here is the hard part: spotting them on their journey
Identification is very difficult. Besides finding them in a binocular field, remembering a “new” bird’s color, underside, and wing patterns makes using a field guide minutes later a real challenge. Additionally, some Spring colors turn drabby in the Fall migration, and most of the young and females’ muted plumage appear to be similar.
For the most part, until you get really good at identifying or have plenty of hours of field experience, it’s best just to enjoy the moment because they have a mission and will be gone in the next moment. Literally, a wave of mixed warbler species migrating through a backyard may last less than two minutes.
In the September setting in The Old Man and the Sea, a warbler lands in Santiago’s boat. The old man is happy to see the bird, but it flits away moments later, and the man’s loneliness returns. He notices the unidentified bird continued its southward migration, perhaps heading to Santiago’s own fishing village or elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Once, on the opposite side of the calendar, I sat in a little Crab Cove under a Sea Grape tree with a Cuban couple on a public beach in the Florida Keys. They were celebrating “Sunday Morning” with some mimosas, and while I declined a glass they graciously offered, a Palm Warbler landed over our heads and “cheeped”. The man said there were thousands of “canaries” like that outside Havanna. The bird was probably resting from the overnight flight from Cuba (less than 100 miles away) on its Spring migration northward.
Not every one is an expert, neither am I
The thing that amazes people, and especially scientists, is that Fall migration fledglings know when and where to go. The conjectures are that the birds navigate by stars, the Sun, magnetic forces, weather, DNA, and/or instinct.
The are no warnings signs or announcements. They just go. Same with our Orioles, Hummingbirds, Wrens, waterfowl, and most Robins. With Warblers there are no deserted bird feeders or empty nests to indicate they have left. The local ones, which only made themselves occasionally visible during the Summer, become invisible. Sighting those from Upper Michigan and Canada are fleeting at best. One shot. One blink, and they move on.
If you are curious about the number of birds migrating, check out the BirdCast Migration Dashboard developed by Cornell University to see how many birds moved through Wisconsin overnight. Warblers are among the migrators that fly under the cover of darkness to log most of their daily miles. NexGen radar stations across the country monitor these night flyers. An interesting side note is that when radar was first developed for wartime purposes, even the early equipment detected what observers called “Angels” because they could not correlate the signals to weather or aircraft. Eventually bird experts figured out they were inflight birds!
The count includes all migrators, but angelic Warblers make up a significant percentage of it.
There are dozens of varieties of warblers that visit and pass through in the Lakewood Townsend area twice a year. We can help them out by turning some of our brighter lights off. Organizations like Lights Out Wisconsin and DarkSky Wisconsin have suggestions for reducing artificial light especially during peak nocturnal migrations. Ground lighting may disorient and endanger warblers and other small birds. Their webpages are full of helpful information, and you can sign up for alerts as reminders to dim down during evening hours.
So, the next late Summer or Fall day you notice an unusual group of small flitting, but relatively noiseless birds passing in front of you, know that they are leaving for the South long before your neighbors, because, they are the original snowbirds.
Photo Credit: Ryan Brady
Published on: Sep 22, 2026 at 11:13 am