Cape May Warbler
Setophaga tigrina
About This Species
Cape May Warblers breed in boreal spruce forest, where their numbers rise and fall with outbreaks of spruce budworm, their preferred prey. During migration through the eastern United States in spring and fall, look high in conifers or flowering trees, and in winter in the Caribbean they will visit nectar sources and even hummingbird feeders. Its song is a very high, thin, buzzy series that many birders find difficult to hear, so scanning treetops visually is often more productive.
Ethical Viewing Guidelines
- A pair of binoculars at a comfortable distance is all that is needed to watch this small warbler feeding in the canopy; there is no reason to approach closely or attempt to draw it down from height.
- As a long-distance migrant crossing many countries, it falls under general migratory bird protections in North America and similar wildlife laws in its Caribbean wintering range, though the specifics differ by jurisdiction.
- Avoiding the use of recorded calls to repeatedly draw the bird in is a good general precaution during migration and on the breeding grounds.
LCAvesPasseriformesParulidae
Seasonal Activity
717,335 sightings · 2000–2026
Citizen science records via GBIF
All monthsThis month
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Parulidae
Photo
Wikimedia Commons / Wikimedia Commons
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Occurrence data from GBIF.