Kirtland's Warbler —Ross Feldner

This is one of the rarest songbirds in American with one of the smallest breeding ranges of any bird in the U.S. Kirtland's Warblers breed almost exclusively in northern Michigan and winter in the Bahamas. These reclusive warblers make their nests on the ground and are very picky about where they breed. Kirtland’s Warblers only breed in young jack pine forests that are 5 to 20 years old.

They have come back from fewer than 200 breeding pairs to around 2,300 pairs today. Once a charter member of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, they have been delisted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as of 2020. Kirtland’s Warbler’s habitat historically was made and maintained by wildfires. Years of fire-suppression programs reduced the Jack Pines these warblers rely on. They were near extinction and only decades of conservation work helped bring them back.