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| Mixed woodland of oak and juniper in Central Texas is the only breeding habitat for the Golden-cheeked Warbler. |
As the temperature rises and late spring turns to early summer, many bird species are in the throes of caring for newly hatched nestlings (still in the nest) or fledglings (just out of the nest). As you hike through our oak-juniper forests in the western part of Austin, you just may run across young families of our endangered bird, the Golden-cheeked Warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia).
Adult Golden-cheeked Warblers arrive at their breeding grounds by mid-March, returning largely to the same areas each year and nesting from April to May. They are socially monogamous, with the males arriving before the females to establish their territory. Courtship behavior, rarely observed, involves the female collecting nesting material as the male sings a soft, twittering version of his song, flicking and spreading his wings and tail and sometimes bringing nesting material to the female.
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| A male Golden-cheeked Warbler sings from a juniper to establish his territory. |
The female chooses the nest site, often in a branched fork of an Ashe Juniper or Live Oak tree, and the nest is built in 4 days, camouflaged by bark strips from mature juniper trees and secured by spider silk. Females lay 3-4 eggs and for the first 3 days she broods or sits on the eggs continuously, being attended to and fed by the male. The eggs hatch in approximately 12 days, and the nestlings are altricial or born helpless and requiring significant parental care.
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| Female Golden-cheeked Warblers typically don't have black throats, but the ones that do are called 'bearded females'. |
However, they leave the nest only 8 or 9 days after hatching, staying in the vicinity of their attendant parents, but usually huddled together and partially hidden in the trees. They continue to be cared for by both parents, who actively search for caterpillars and other insects in the foliage to bring directly to the fledglings.
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| A fledgling Golden-cheeked Warbler. |
The most obvious way to spot these furtive fledglings is by listening for the family group. As a parent nears with food in its beak, the fledglings chip rapidly and flutter their wings, begging and hoping to be the one who gets the morsel of food. They grow quiet once the parent takes off to forage again. Once they get a bit older, they start to follow their foraging parents begging for food, eventually becoming more confident in their ability to fly and learning to forage for themselves. As they become even more independent, the young join the adults in mixed-species flocks in the woodlands before migration begins in July and early August.
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| This Golden-cheeked Warbler fledgling caught its own food! |
If you hear or see a Golden-cheeked Warbler family foraging and feeding in our mixed woodlands, consider yourself lucky. Of the nearly 360 bird species that breed in Texas, the Golden-cheeked Warbler is the only one that nests exclusively in Texas, so each one is a native Texan!
