Birds of the Upper Cumberland Region: Species Accounts

Swainson's Warbler (Limnothlypis swainsonii)

Abundance: Very Uncommon; Uncommon at a few Regional sites (i.e., Little Lick and Bee Rock, Daniel Boone National Forest, Pulaski County, Kentucky; the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, McCreary County, Kentucky, and Scott [mainly], Morgan, Pickett, and Fentress counties, Tennessee [see Remarks {below}]; and the Obed Wild and Scenic River, Cumberland and Morgan [mainly] counties, Tennessee); recorded in 13 Regional counties, 5 in Kentucky and 8 in Tennessee (Map of UCR Distribution); determination of a trend in the Regional breeding or non-breeding migratory populations inadvisable because supporting data are few (see also Regional Bird-Monitoring Plan).  

Status: Summer Resident in most counties where recorded as present (mid-April to late July or early August); Transient only in 1 Kentucky county (Adair); specimen from tower kill (disposition unknown; see first record below); photograph [of specimen; see first record below; otherwise all Regional records consist of sight and/or sound {mainly} records].

Regional High Count 16 (2 June 2011; McCreary County, Kentucky; Stephen J. Stedman [13], Barbara H. Stedman [1], and Roseanna M. Denton [2]).

Earliest Known Record for Each County:

Kentucky:

11/12 October 1990 (1—tower kill) WGRB tower 6.5 km north of Columbia, Adair County; Jackie B. Elmore, Sr.; Elmore and Palmer-Ball 1991 [specimen actually found 17 October 1990; photograph of specimen later obtained by B. Palmer-Ball]; Palmer-Ball 2003 [date of  bird's demise inferred from specimen condition and meteorological data during nights preceding bird's discovery]; Stamm and Monroe 1991a [date of  bird's demise also inferred from specimen condition and meteorological data during nights preceding bird's discovery]).

1 June 1998 (1—singing) Indian Creek along Rt. 1045, McCreary County (Lynda M. Mills unpubl. data).

12 June 1999 (present) Bee Rock, Daniel Boone National Forest, Pulaski County (Roseanna M. Denton unpubl. data).

Tennessee (Records also in Cumberland and Scott):

Summer 1978 (present) DeKalb County (Herbert E. Shadowen; Shadowen 1978).

1–2 June 1979 (4) Clear Fork, Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, Fentress (and Morgan) County, Tennessee (G. R. Mayfield, Jr., et al.; Nicholson 1981), a Fentress County Foray record obtained by canoe.

1–2 June 1979 (4) Clear Fork, Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, Morgan (and Fentress) County (G. R. Mayfield, Jr., et al.; Nicholson 1981), a Fentress County Foray record obtained by canoe.

2 June 1979 (2) Pickett State Park, Pickett County (Michael L. Bierly, David F. Vogt; Nicholson 1982a), a Pickett County Foray record.

28–31 May 1982 (1) Old Railroad Grade Rd., White County (fide Michael L. Bierly et al.; Stedman 1986c), a White County Foray record (unpublished).

9–23 May 1992 (1—territorial) Broadwater Branch Rd., Putnam County (Stephen J. Stedman et al.; Stedman 1993), a Spring Bird Count record.

Regional Extreme Dates:

    Early Spring Arrival: 13 April 2003 (Morgan County, Tennessee; Stephen J. Stedman, Barbara H. Stedman).

    Late Fall Departure: 11/12 October 1990 (Adair County, Kentucky; Jackie B. Elmore, Sr.; Elmore and Palmer-Ball 1991); the date when this bird (and 1575 others at the same site) was killed was inferred from the condition of the specimen and from meteorological data for nights preceding the date (17 October 1990) of its discovery as a tower kill (Elmore and Palmer-Ball 1991; Palmer-Ball 2003; Stamm and Monroe 1991a); Next Latest Fall Departure: 12 September 2009 (McCreary County, Kentucky; Roseanna M. Denton). Few or no other Regional records during September and October.

    Note: Arrives earlier than reported in most years because access to the sites where it breeds is often quite restricted by difficult terrain.  Often the best way to be sure to detect early arriving birds is by canoeing the rivers where they are known to breed during mid-April.  Departure from Region almost surely later than most of the very limited data indicate, but how much later is a problematic matter, probably one not likely to be resolved. Regional dates of earliest spring arrival and latest fall departure follow for the period 2001–2010 follow:

Breeding: Confirmed (Recent). An adult with food for young was observed 19 May 1998 in the Bear Creek area, Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, McCreary County, Kentucky (Stephen J. Stedman, Robert G. Emmott; Stedman and Stedman 2002); at least two records (for 2000 and 2002) of the same kind have been obtained in Pulaski County, Kentucky (Palmer-Ball 2003).

Habitat: Rhododendron thickets beneath the canopy of fairly mature forest along streams, creeks, rivers, and sometimes wet-weather ravines/hollows.  Breeds in cane thickets along streams and rivers to the west of the Region.

YardWatch Results 2003 and 2004: No registrations.

Foray Results: A summary of data from UCR Forays follows (to view a map displaying foray data for a county or a sub-Region for this species, click on the name of an underlined county or state below):

* Because some foray blocks fall into two or three counties, the total of blocks in the Kentucky or Tennessee portions of the Region is less than the sum of the blocks in the counties of each portion of the Region; similarly, because some blocks fall into both states, the total of blocks for the Region is less than the sum of the blocks in the two states.

Remarks: A reclusive warbler, most often detected by its emphatically delivered song, which, however, is akin to the song of the Louisiana Waterthrush, especially when heard at a distance of 50 m or more in thick forest, causing the probability that some Regional records may actually pertain to the latter species.

    The tower-killed specimen from Adair County, Kentucky (Elmore and Palmer-Ball 1991) was obtained 17 October 1990; it may have fallen victim to the tower on the previous night (16/17 October) or on one of several earlier nights; weather conditions during those nights, as well as the condition of the specimen, indicate that the night of 11/12 October 1990 was the most probable date on which this warbler was killed, so that date is now the one assigned to this sighting, but the actual date of the warbler's demise in Adair County can never be known.

    Not recorded in any Regional county in Kentucky by Mengel (1965), who spent considerable time in the Region during many decades prior to the publication of his monograph on the birds of Kentucky. It is difficult to believe he missed this warbler during all of his visits, if it was actually present then.  Whether Mengel's not recording the species betokens the species' absence from these areas during the mid-Twentieth Century is a matter of considerable interest.

    Swainson's Warbler was also not recorded by Ganier (1937) or Spofford (1948) in Pickett State Park during the late 1930s and early 1940s, a curious omission, again causing considerable interest, if their not having recorded the species indicates its absence from that site during their visits.

    An effort to locate as many Swainson's Warblers as possible during one breeding season was undertaken during 2003 in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area (situated in one Kentucky and four Tennessee counties) and resulted in the detection of at least 13 singing males (Stephen J. Stedman data for National Park Service), about the largest number ever reported from one discrete, albeit large (40,000+ hectares), site during one breeding season in the Region; this count probably accounted for a moderate, but difficult to quantify, proportion of all Swainson's Warblers in the park that year.

    An accurate estimate of the number of breeding pairs of Swainson's Warbler in the Region would be valuable, if based on reasonable evidence and inference. If allowance is made for the existence of some (c. 10–20) breeding pairs at sites as yet unknown in the Region and if the total counted in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in 2003 is taken into account, a conservative figure for the Region's breeding population might be about 100 pairs, not a large number by any stretch of the imagination for a Region of about 10,000 square mi. The extremely tentative nature of this estimate needs to be emphasized.

Check-lists of Birds for the Counties of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of each county of the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed by clicking on the links below. For each county, there are two check-lists: one list that shows the species that have been observed and where possible documented in the county within the larger list for the entire Region; and one list that includes only the species observed in the county with annotations for the date and observers for at least one sighting (the ultimate goal of the latter list will be to include annotations for the very first known Regional observation of each species in that county; this goal is probably one that will take many years to complete, if completion is even a possibility). To see if the species discussed in this species account has been observed in a county, click below or click on the link for the Map of UCR Distribution near the top of the page.

Check-lists of Birds for Some Public Access Birding Sites of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of some public access birding sites within the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed via the links below. To see if the species dealt with in this species account has been observed within any of these sites, click on the appropriate link below. See the pages for each county within the Gazetteer for links to additional smaller public access birding sites with check-lists in progress.

Literature Cited