Kirtland's warbler

noun

Kirt·​land's warbler ˈkərt-lən(d)z- 

plural Kirtland's warblers

: a rare warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii synonym Dendroica kirtlandii) of northeastern North America that is gray with yellow underparts

Note: Kirtland's warblers breed in Michigan and sometimes Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada and winter in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos.

Kirtland's warblers are ground-nesters that prefer jack pine stands more than 80 acres in size, where the nest can be concealed in mixed vegetation of grasses and shrubs below the living branches of 5- to 20-year-old trees.

—State News Service

Intensive research determined that two primary factors were causing the decline of the Kirtland's warblers: a lack of suitable nesting habitat and brood parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds.

—Cameron MacDonald

Word History

Etymology

Jared P. Kirtland †1877 American naturalist

First Known Use

1853, in the meaning defined above