Golden-cheeked Warbler Setophaga chrysoparia Scientific name definitions

The Golden-cheeked Warbler is the only endemic nesting bird out of the 613 bird species reported from Texas. It is rare and endangered, but locally common, in the juniper-oak (Juniperus-Quercus) woodlands of central Texas, where its clear buzzing song marks the beginning of spring to many central Texas birders. It becomes scarce by early summer and departs early for the wintering grounds in the mountains of southern Mexico and Central America, where it also uses a mixed evergreen-oak forest habitat.

This species first became known to science from specimens collected on its winter range (Guatemala in 1860 [Sclater and Salvin 1860 Sclater, P. L. and O. Salvin. (1860). Characters of eleven new species of birds discovered by Osbert Salvin in Guatemala. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 28:298-301. Close ]), and was not discovered in central Texas until 1864 (Dresser 1865 Dresser, H. E. (1865). Notes on the birds of southern Texas. Ibis 1:466-495. Close ). It was immediately recognized for its similarity to three closely related Setophaga species: Townsend's Warbler (S. townsendi), the Hermit Warbler (S. occidentalis), and the Black-throated Green Warbler (S. virens).

Most of the literature on the Golden-cheeked Warbler has focused on nesting habitat, distribution, and migration (H. P. Attwater in Chapman 1907b Chapman, F. M. (1907b). The warblers of North America. New York: D. Appleton & Company. Close , Bent 1953b Bent, A. C. (1953). Life Histories of North American Wood Warblers. Bulletin of the United States National Museum 203. Close , Pulich 1976 Pulich, W. M. (1976). The Golden-cheeked Warbler: a bioecological study. Austin: Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. Close ). The oldest literature is full of accounts of collecting expeditions and descriptions of collected nests and eggs (Brewster 1879d Brewster, W. (1879d). On the habits and nesting of certain rare birds in Texas. Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club 4:75-80. Close , Brown 1882a Brown, N. C. (1882a). A reconnaissance in southwestern Texas. Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club 7:33-42. Close , Brown 1884 Brown, N. C. (1884). A second season in Texas. Auk 1:120-124. Close , Norris 1887 Norris, J. P. (1887). Eggs of Dendroica chrysoparia. Ornithol. and Oolog. 12:202. Close , Norris 1889a Norris, J. P. (1889a). A series of eggs of the Golden-cheeked Warbler. Ornithol. and Oolog. 14:68-69. Close , Tallichet 1892 Tallichet, J. H. (1892). A day in Texas woods. Ornithol. and Oolog. 17 (7):106-108. Close ). Since publication of Bent's (Bent 1953b Bent, A. C. (1953). Life Histories of North American Wood Warblers. Bulletin of the United States National Museum 203. Close ) account, much has been added to our knowledge of the species' life history, distribution, and habitat, especially by Pulich's (Pulich 1976 Pulich, W. M. (1976). The Golden-cheeked Warbler: a bioecological study. Austin: Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. Close ) comprehensive study. More recently, attention has shifted to population biology, feeding and foraging ecology, predation and nest parasitism, winter distribution and conservation needs. Intensive multi-year population studies have been conducted at Fort Hood, Texas (Hayden and Tazik 1991 Hayden, T. J. and D. J. Tazik. (1991). Project status report: 1991 field studies of two endangered species (the Black-capped Vireo and the Golden-cheeked Warbler) and the cowbird control program on Fort Hood, Texas. Champaign, IL: USACERL. Close , Bolsinger and Hayden 1992 Bolsinger, J. S. and T. Hayden. (1992). Project status report: 1992 field studies of two endangered species (the Black-capped Vireo and the Golden-cheeked Warbler) and the cowbird control program on Fort Hood, Texas. Champaign, IL: USACERL. Close , Bolsinger and Hayden 1994 Bolsinger, J. S. and T. Hayden. (1994). Project status report: 1993 field studies of two endangered species (the Black-capped Vireo and the Golden-cheeked Warbler) and the cowbird control program on Fort Hood, Texas. Champaign, IL: USACERL. Close , Weinberg et al. 1995 Weinberg, H. J., J. S. Bolsinger and T. Hayden. (1995). Project status report: 1994 field studies of two endangered species (the Black-capped Vireo and the Golden-cheeked Warbler) and the cowbird control program on Fort Hood, Texas. Champaign, IL: USACERL. Close , Weinberg et al. 1996 Weinberg, H. J., L. A. Jetté and J. D. Cornelius. (1996). Field studies of the endangered Black-capped Vireo and Golden-cheeked Warbler, and the cowbird control program on Fort Hood, Texas. Champaign, IL: Fort Hood Natural Resources Branch, Fort Hood, TX and Natural Resources Assessment and Management Division, USACERL. Close , Jetté et al. 1998 Jetté, L. A., T. J. Hayden and J. D. Cornelius. (1998). Demographics of the Golden-cheeked Warbler (Dendroica chrysoparia) on Fort Hood, Texas. Champaign, IL: USACERL. Close ) and the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge and Barton Creek Habitat Preserve (Keddy-Hector 1993 Keddy-Hector, D. P. (1993). Golden-cheeked warbler use of habitat patches. Austin: Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. Close ). Winter distribution and habitat use have been studied by Vidal et al. (Vidal et al. 1994 Vidal, R. M., C. Macías-Caballero and C. D. Duncan. (1994). The occurrence and ecology of the Golden-cheeked Warbler in the highlands of Northern Chiapas, Mexico. Condor 96 (3):684-691. Close ) and Thompson (Thompson 1995 Thompson, D. E. (1995). Observations of Golden-cheeked Warblers wintering in Guatemala and Honduras. Austin, TX: Final Report to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Close ). Large gaps still exist in our knowledge of this species, such as in winter distribution and habitat, conservation problems in the winter range, behavior, reproductive and population biology, and conservation and management problems.

Biologists have been concerned with the survival of the species since the late 1800s, when Attwater (Attwater 1892 Attwater, H. P. (1892). List of birds observed in the vicinity of San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. Auk 9:229-238, 337-345. Close ) voiced alarm at the rate at which it was losing habitat (Lytle 1994 Lytle, K. M. (1994). The Golden-cheeked Warbler: a literature review. Master's Thesis, Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin. Close ). It was listed as Rare on the earliest rare and endangered species lists (Bureau Of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife 1966 Fisheries, Bureau Of Sport and Wildlife. (1966). Rare and endangered fish and wildlife of the United States: Golden-cheeked Warbler. U.S. Dept. Interior, Washington, D.C. Resource Publ. 34:B46. Close ). It was listed as Endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in 1990, because of continuing concerns over loss of habitat, caused primarily by urban expansion and land clearing for agricultural activity (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1990a Fish, U.S. and Wildlife Service. (1990a). Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants; emergency rule to list the Golden-cheeked Warbler as endangered. Federal Register 55 (87):18844-18845. Close , U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1990c Fish, U.S. and Wildlife Service. (1990c). Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants; proposed rule to list the Golden-cheeked Warbler as endangered. Federal Register 55 (87):18846-18849. Close , U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1990b Fish, U.S. and Wildlife Service. (1990b). Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants; final rule to list the Golden-cheeked Warbler as endangered. Federal Register 55 (249):53153-53160. Close ). Conservation of the species remains a contentious issue through much of the hill country of central Texas.