Who wouldn’t shriek for joy at finding a Scarlet Tanager snacking on oranges at the feeder or using the birdbath in spring? That scarlet-red color takes your breath away.
But Scarlet Tanagers aren’t my favorite spring migrating bird. That honor goes to the Chestnut-sided Warbler.
This is often one of the last warblers to travel through our neighborhood and area of the state in the spring. Their spring song is even friendly: “Pleased, pleased, pleased to meetcha!”
It’s been my experience that Chestnut-sided warblers are a little less skittish than other warbler species, and in the spring I can often spot them looking for insects in smaller shrubs and trees (translation: I don’t have to get the dreaded “warbler neck” trying to stare into the treetops with binoculars to find them).
These warblers migrate each spring from Central America, where they overwinter, to northern Wisconsin, Michigan, the North-Atlantic states and Canada where they spend the breeding season. Here in southern Wisconsin birders can usually spot them for several weeks each May as they pass through on their way up north.