Midwest Migratory Birds

From the dense blanket of green that is the Northwoods to the sloping woodland hills of the Edge of Appalachia, TNC and its partners protect and steward forests throughout the Midwest, ensuring these habitats remain healthy, safe places for migrating birds and other wildlife. Migrating birds like scarlet tanagers and cerulean warblers (among many other warbler species) depend on these forests for both stopover sites and nesting sites during the summer. 

In addition to directly protecting woodlands, TNC is also advancing programs like the Family Forest Carbon program, which helps private landowners maintain and steward their forests to be healthy habitats and ecosystems. Through programs like this, TNC ensures that public and privately owned forests are available for migrating birds. 

In Indiana, The Nature Conservancy is working to protect and steward prairies like the Efroymson Prairie at Kankakee Sands, which provides habitat for more than 240 bird species, including the rare Henslow’s sparrow that migrates there each summer to breed.

Little remains of Wisconsin's once extensive grasslands. Those that have managed to survive, like Thomson Memorial Prairie, are small, isolated and fragmented. To recreate a larger grassland ecosystem, TNC carefully manages and expands these prairie remnants through a combination of planting, prescribed burning and control of exotic species. Long-distance migrators, like bobolinks and dickcissels, depend on these protected and managed areas for breeding each year.

Erie Marsh is one of the most extensive coastal wetlands on Lake Erie and is a prime stopover site for spring bird migration for birds like white pelicans and great egrets. Erie Marsh contains 11% of the remaining coastal wetlands in southeastern Michigan. In 2023—after a 12-year, 1,000-plus-acre habitat restoration project led by TNC—the marsh was fully reconnected to North Maumee Bay for the first time in more than 60 years.

Historically, marshlands like these blanketed the shoreline of western Lake Erie. But today, only 5% of this critical habitat remains. TNC and its partners are working to restore and reconnect other coastal waters, like Sandusky Bay, to Lake Erie, ensuring they remain a protected area for migrating birds and other wildlife.

But it’s not just wetlands along the coast of Lake Erie that TNC is working to steward and protect. Throughout the Midwest, wetlands serve as crucial habitats for migrating and nesting birds. For instance, at Emiquon along the Illinois River in Illinois, TNC and its partners are working on one of the largest floodplain restoration projects in the Midwest, providing habitat for hundreds of thousands of migrating birds each year, such as snow geese and tundra swans.

Cities are home to more than 62% of the U.S. population and are often located near bodies of water like rivers or lakes, which are also vital stopover sites for migrating birds. In Midwest cities, such as Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee, green infrastructure—or the installation of plants, trees and permeable surfaces—is helping to ensure that migrating birds can find food and shelter when navigating through urban areas. Many migrating species will find refuge in city green spaces throughout the Midwest, including peregrine falcons and northern house wrens.

Setophaga ruticilla

Look up into the subcanopy and canopy to spot American redstarts as they dart among the branches, chasing insects. Mature males are a striking coal black with bright orange patches and a white belly. Juveniles and females are much more muted, with grey feathers and yellow patches. These birds migrate to the Midwest from Central and South America each spring. 

Mniotilta varia

Black-and-white warblers are one of the earliest arriving migrants to the Midwest each spring. You'll usually find them creeping along tree trunks and branches, looking for insects. While they do spend most of their time in trees, black-and-white warblers nest in the leaf litter of forests. These birds travel from Mexico, Central and South America to breed in the Midwest each year. 

Setophaga fusca

While their flame-orange head, throat and chest markings stand out against their black feathers, male Blackburnian warblers are tough to spot even for seasoned birders. They spend most of their time high in the canopy but can be spotted lower down during migration. Females and juveniles lack the bright orange and black of the males and are a more muted yellow and dark grey. You'll know for sure, though, that you've seen a male Blackburnian warbler—they are the only warblers with an orange throat!

These warblers migrate from South America through most of the Midwest, finally stopping to nest in the northernmost portions of Michigan and Wisconsin and on up into Canada.

Setophaga cerulea

Look up, up, up to find this small blue warbler hopping among the gaps in the upper tree canopy in the forest. While the males are sky blue with a white belly, females and juvenile cerulean warblers are a blue-green with a more yellow underside. A tree ID book or app can help you spot these forest dwellers, as they often like to forage on white oaks, sugar maples and butternut hickories. Cerulean warblers fly from South America in the spring to nest throughout the Midwest in the summer. 

Setophaga kirtlandii

Kirtland's warblers are a rare treat to find for birdwatchers. They are habitat specialists, only nesting in young jack pine forests found in northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and up into Canada. The males are a dark grey with bright yellow chests and belly, while the females and juveniles are a more muted grey and yellow. Because these birds only nest in very specific habitats, the best chance to see them is during migration, as they travel from their winter homes in The Bahamas through the Midwest to their summer nesting grounds.

Due to its need for a specific habitat, the Kirtland's warbler is particularly vulnerable to habitat loss and fragmentation. This bird spent nearly 50 years on the Endangered Species List due to habitat loss. But, in 2019, thanks in part to efforts to restore the jack pine forests where they nest, they were removed from the list.

Setophaga americana

To find northern parulas, you'll have to look up. These tiny warblers inhabit the upper canopy of forests. Male northern parulas are blue-grey birds with bright yellow throats and chests and chestnut breastbands. Females and juveniles are paler in color and lack the chestnut breastband.

While northern parulas are found in forests, they require a very specific type of forest environment for nesting—the trees need to have hanging mosses or lace lichens. The females will build hanging cup nests that are hidden within the moss or lichen. This nesting requirement could explain the odd break in the Northern parula's nesting range—they tend to nest in the southern portions of the Midwest and U.S. and then in the north of the U.S. up into Canada. This break could be due to habitat loss in the middle portion of their range.

These birds migrate from Central America and islands in the Caribbean to their nesting grounds each spring. While they typically inhabit the upper canopy, you might be able to spot them lower down as they forage for food on their journey during migration.

Protonotaria citrea

To find prothonotary warblers, look in forested wetlands and swampy woodlands or along riversides. Both adult male and female prothonotary warblers are bright yellow with grey-blue wings, though the females may have some grey along their heads and necks to mute the yellow. These birds are one of only two warbler species to nest in holes in standing dead trees. 

The prothonotary warbler population is declining throughout its range, largely due to the loss of forested wetlands for its nesting grounds and mangoves in its winter homes. These birds migrate from Mexico, Central and South America in the spring and breed in much of the Midwest. 

Setophaga petechia

True to their name, yellow warblers are a bright butter yellow. Mature adult males have some chestnut streaks on their chests, while juveniles and females lack that coloration. Yellow warblers migrate and nest throughout the Midwest, looking for thickets, streamsides and wet woods to settle in. These warblers are often found in willow trees, though they will also nest in dense tangles of shrubby plants like raspberry or honeysuckle. 

Yellow warblers are one of the most common warblers to spot in spring, as they are found throughout Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. They spend the winter in Central and South America.