Cerulean Warbler

The cerulean warbler is a small but visually striking bird with sky blue plumage streaked with patches of white and black. Historically ranging throughout most of the eastern United States, the cerulean warbler has experienced some of the most dramatic population declines of any bird species in recent decades - averaging 3% every losses year from 1966 to 2005, according to breeding bird survey data. Declines are attributed to habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation within its breeding and wintering grounds and along its migration route.  

Cerulean warblers prefer to breed in the canopies of mature, structurally diverse deciduous forests.  Large tracts of this habitat are disappearing in its breeding range, though areas of the Appalachian region remain a stronghold for the species. Large swaths of its wintering grounds in the Andes Mountains of South America are also under heavy development pressure. Efforts to conserve the cerulean warbler will require a collaborative approach across its entire migratory range. 

The cerulean warbler is on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Birds of Conservation list, which represents our highest conservation priorities. We are working with partners to support conservation actions that will improve habitat for the cerulean warbler and other forest songbirds -- one of the steeply declining groups of birds identified in our Call to Action to help address the loss of nearly 3 billion breeding birds in North America since 1970.