Wildlife Diversity Program Quarterly Report for January–March 2025
Wayne’s Warbler Breeding Confirmed in Brunswick and Camden Counties by John Carpenter, Coastal Region Landbird Biologist; Josh Emm, NC Bird Atlas Coastal Crew Lead; and Silas Hernadez, Coastal Region Assistant Landbird Biologist
D espite a disappointingly low number of Wayne’s Black-throated Green Warbler observations in early Spring 2024, the coastal landbird team once again continued the search for this rare subspecies beginning in March 2025. This year, both confidence and effort were boosted by having several more field technicians available to spread out across the Coastal Plain. This strategy paid off with more birds being seen on pro- tected lands in more counties: Beaufort (Van Swamp Game Land), Brunswick (Juniper Creek Game Land), Camden (Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Ref- uge and Dismal Swamp State Park), Carteret (Croatan National Forest) and Hyde (Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge). Some of these sightings represent new locations where the species had not been observed before, including a narrow channel at the southern end of the Alligator River. Not only were singing males detected, but breeding was confirmed in two new loca- tions: Juniper Creek Game Land and Dismal Swamp State Park . The Wayne’s Black-throated Green Warbler (Setophaga virens waynei) population still represents a
Above: Female Black-throated Green Warbler carrying nesting material.
fraction of the more common mountain nominate species (Setophaga virens), as can be clearly seen on the NC Bird Atlas map: https://ebird.org/atlasnc/map/btn- war . Much work remains to fully understand the distribution and abundance of this subspecies, but the potential opportunities to continue learning about this species at more sites is exciting.
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