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Counted back up
Kirtland's warbler
1,522singing males
Head count
June 2025
Setophaga kirtlandii
USA (Michigan, Wisconsin), Canada (Ontario); winters in the Bahamas
Counted June 2025, by the Kirtland's Warbler Conservation Team.
The latest count for the Kirtland's warbler is 1,522 singing males, a count and not an estimate, made in June 2025 by the Kirtland's Warbler Conservation Team.
1,522 singing males in June 2025, down since the 2021 census, after a low of 167 in 1987.
On the wall as counted back up: 167 singing males in 1987, under the wall's threshold of 1,000, and 1,522 singing males in June 2025, past it, though down since the 2021 count.
How it was counted
The June 2025 census counted singing males only, so the figure is not every bird. The US Fish and Wildlife Service says the census is a relative index of change over time, not an absolute count. The Kirtland's Warbler Observer, the Conservation Team's newsletter published by American Bird Conservancy, sets it beside the last complete census, of 2021, and does not name the states or provinces covered.
A census of singing males only, not of every bird. The US Fish and Wildlife Service calls the census a relative index of change, not an absolute count.
Earlier figures
- 167 singing males in 1987, a head count: the dated low. Source: US Fish and Wildlife Service, final delisting rule, Federal Register 84 FR 54436, 9 Oct 2019.
- 2,245 in 2021: the previous count. Source: Kirtland's Warbler Conservation Team (Michigan DNR, Wisconsin DNR, USFWS, US Forest Service and partners), Kirtland's Warbler Observer, published by American Bird Conservancy.
What moves it
The Kirtland's Warbler Conservation Team points to a shortage of young jack pine to breed in, which has to be made anew all the time, and to brown-headed cowbirds laying their eggs in warbler nests (brood parasitism), held down by trapping. The US Fish and Wildlife Service says replanted jack pine gave the birds enough habitat to recover.
- shortage of young jack pine breeding habitat. Source: Kirtland's Warbler Conservation Team (Michigan DNR, Wisconsin DNR, USFWS, US Forest Service and partners), Kirtland's Warbler Observer, published by American Bird Conservancy.
- brood parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds, kept down by trapping since 1972. Source: US Fish and Wildlife Service, final delisting rule, Federal Register 84 FR 54436, 9 Oct 2019.
Who is helping
Michigan DNR and the US Forest Service replanted jack pine for the warbler to breed in, which the US Fish and Wildlife Service says gave the birds enough habitat to recover. The Kirtland's Warbler Conservation Team (state, federal and private partners) manages the warbler and its jack pine habitat together.
The next count
The census runs every few years (complete census in 2021 and 2025). No date for the next census is known as of 12 November 2026.
Sources
- Kirtland's Warbler Conservation Team (Michigan DNR, Wisconsin DNR, USFWS, US Forest Service and partners), Kirtland's Warbler Observer, published by American Bird Conservancy Last checked 12 November 2026.
- US Fish and Wildlife Service, final delisting rule, Federal Register 84 FR 54436, 9 Oct 2019 Last checked 12 November 2026.
What changed
- 12 November 2026 Added to Live Species, on the wall, counted back up: 1,522 singing males (Head count, June 2025).
Next on the wall
The letter
The letter comes once a month, on the first Thursday. It gives what changed on Live Species, one animal up close and the humans figure for contrast.