Overview

Blackpoll Warblers (Setophaga striata) are among North America’s most extraordinary migratory songbirds. Breeding throughout the boreal forest and wintering in northern South America, they undertake one of the longest migrations of any New World songbird, including a remarkable non-stop transoceanic flight from northeastern North America to South America each autumn. Despite this incredible migration, Blackpoll Warbler populations have declined rapidly over the past several decades.

Since 2013, the Norris Lab has been using tracking technologies to study the migration ecology and conservation of Blackpoll Warblers throughout their annual cycle. Our research provided the first direct evidence that individuals complete this extraordinary non-stop flight across the western Atlantic Ocean and, more recently, described the species’ range-wide migratory networks using data from populations across North America. These studies have transformed our understanding of how breeding, migratory, and wintering populations are connected throughout the annual cycle.

Working with collaborators from Birds Canada, the National Audubon Society, the Wildlife Conservation Society, SELVA (Colombia), and many other partners, we are now combining migration data with demographic information to identify the stages of the annual cycle that contribute most to population decline. By understanding where mortality occurs and how different populations are connected, our goal is to develop more effective conservation strategies for one of North America’s most iconic migratory birds.

Publications

*PDF’s of papers can be found in the “Publications” section of this website.

3. Duali, J, DeLuca, WV, MacKenzie, SA, Tremblay, JA, Drolet, B, Hache, S, Roberto-Charron, A, Ruiz, M, Boardman, R, Cooke, HA, Rimmer, CC, McFarland, KP, Marra, PP, Taylor, PD & Norris, DR. 2024. Range-wide post- and pre-breeding migratory networks of a declining Neotropical-Nearctic migratory bird, the blackpoll warbler. Scientific Reports14:30229.

2. DeLuca, WV, Woodworth, BK, Mackenzie, SA, Newman, AEM, Cooke, H, Phillips, LM, Freeman, N, Sutton, AO, Tauzer, L, McIntyre, C, Stenhouse, I, Weidensaul, S, Taylor, PD & Norris, DR. 2019. A boreal songbird’s 20,000 km migration across North America and the Atlantic Ocean. Ecology 100(5): e02651.

1. DeLuca, WV, Woodworth, BK, Rimmer, C, Taylor, PD, Marra, PP, McFarland, K, Mackenzie, SA & Norris, DR. 2015. Transoceanic migration by a 12g songbird. Biology Letters 11: 20141045.