Photo courtesy of Greg Lavaty

Ovenbird

Seiurus aurocapilla
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Parulidae
Listen:
Sound courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Did you know?

Most birds don't eat ants, but Ovenbirds do! The Ovenbird's taste for this abundant food source may help explain why the birds are one of the most common species in some coffee plantations.

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General Description

With olive upperparts and whitish underparts, this warbler looks superficially like a small thrush. The spotted breast, white eye ring, and orange central crown framed by two black stripes are distinctive. Males sing a ringing, rising "TEAcher-TEAcher-TEAcher" song from hidden perches, with two males often alternating so smoothly that the listener may think there is only one bird. This bird is fairly common in both its breeding and non-breeding habitats, although it is declining in the midwestern United States. The Ovenbird builds its nest on the ground in mature forests. Visit BirdWeb to read more about this bird.

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Habitat & Migration

Ovenbirds are classified as "forest generalists" because they use a variety of forest habitats. As examples, they breed in oak-hickory forests (Maryland), maple-basswood forests (Michigan), beech-birch-maple forests (Vermont), and other extensive, primarily deciduousA tree or shrub that sheds its leaves at the end of each growing season.
More... forest habitats. In winter, Ovenbirds generally maintain their preference for thick tree cover, such as that provided by shade coffee plantations; the birds also use thickets, second growth forests, and dry forests in winter. The birds spend their winter months in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and northern South America, as well as in Florida.

Information on Ovenbird migration is limited, and more research is needed. In late summer, Ovenbirds leave their breeding grounds in east and north-central United States and Canada, arriving in northeast Mexico in late August, and throughout the NeotropicsA tropical region south of the Tropic of Cancer in the western hemisphere, including southern Mexico, Central and South America.
More... in late September to early October. On their return to their breeding grounds, Ovenbirds migrate mostly east of Texas. Ovenbirds begin arriving on their southeastern breeding grounds the second week in April, and reach their more northern breeding sites the last week in April.

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The Coffee Connection

No matter what the habitat or season, Ovenbirds normally forage in the same way: picking up insects and seeds from the top surface of leaf litter on the ground. For Ovenbirds wintering in three sites in Jamaica, approximately 60% of their food items were ants, 20% seeds, and 10% beetles. Ants may be a major reason that Ovenbirds can occupy so many diverse habitats when not breeding. Ants are readily available because other birds"both residents and migrants"prefer more nutritious food.

Migrant warblers on shade coffee farms in Jamaica help keep down the populations of harmful insects, including the coffee berry borerA widespread beetle pest that causes extensive and expensive damage to coffee plantations.
More..., a particularly destructive pest on coffee farms. As ground foragers, Ovenbirds may consume female borers that are laying eggs on fallen coffee berries. The birds also forage on the lower branches of coffee plants, where berry borers and other pests could be present.

Ovenbirds in shade coffee seem to be in good health. The physical health of wintering Ovenbirds, measured by body mass and feather growth rate, was better in shade coffee plantations and in second growth scrub than in dry natural forest in Jamaica. Once this warbler settles in shade coffee habitat in early winter, it tends to stay there through the entire season, a tendency called "site persistence." This site persistence may be characteristic of many migratory bird species in shade coffee.

Ovenbirds are found on coffee plantations in Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Puerto Rico. In the Dominican Republic, the Ovenbird is one of the five most common birds counted in shade coffee farms. In Guatemala, this species uses several coffee landscapes, including sun habitat and various shade habitats. In the state of Chiapas, Mexico, Ovenbirds are found on both rusticThe coffee-growing system in which the original tree layer is left intact and coffee bushes replace the original undergrowth.
More... (natural) and planted shade coffee farms as well as in cloud forests.

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Conservation Status

According to the International Union for Conservation of NatureA global environment network which publishes a "Red List" indicating the conservation status of plants and animals. Status on the “Red List” increases from Least Concern to Near Threatened to Vulnerable to Endangered to Critically Endangered.
More... (IUCN), the global conservation status of the Ovenbird is "Least Concern." The results of 40 years of monitoring by the North American Breeding Bird Survey show that the Ovenbird population has increased overall about 13% from 1966 to 2007. While the population has been increasing in the northeastern United States, it has been decreasing in the Midwest. Because the Ovenbird requires large tracts of forest for breeding, as well as forests or other shade when not breeding, the increasing loss of these habitats may cause difficulties for Ovenbird populations in the future.

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