The Cerulean Warbler is a small jewel of the treetops — the adult male a lovely sky-blue above and clean white below, marked with a narrow blue-black band across the chest and dark streaks along the sides. The female is softer blue-green above with a pale eyebrow. It forages so high in the canopy of mature forest that birders often locate it only by its buzzy, rising song and endure "warbler neck" trying to glimpse it against the sky. It is one of the most beautiful and most difficult-to-see warblers in the state.
The Cerulean Warbler has suffered one of the steepest declines of any North American warbler and is assessed as Near Threatened, hit hard by the loss of mature, structurally complex deciduous forest on its breeding grounds and by clearing of its Andean wintering forests. In Michigan it breeds locally in mature bottomland and upland forests, mostly in the south of the state, favoring big trees with a tall, uneven canopy. Protecting large tracts of old deciduous forest is central to its survival.
Gleans caterpillars, insects, and spiders from the outer foliage high in the canopy of mature deciduous forest, moving along limbs and hovering to reach prey. Its reliance on tall, structurally diverse old forest ties it closely to large, intact woodland tracts.
It depends on large tracts of mature, structurally complex deciduous forest for breeding and on Andean forests in winter, and both have been heavily lost or fragmented. These pressures have made it one of the fastest-declining warblers and led to its Near Threatened status.
Cerulean Warblers forage very high in the forest canopy, so they are often detected only by their buzzy, rising song. Getting a clear look usually means straining upward against the sky — the classic "warbler neck."
Locally in mature bottomland and upland deciduous forests, mostly in the southern part of the state, where large trees form a tall, broken canopy. It needs big, intact forest tracts and is absent from small or fragmented woodlots.
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