Fall migration gives us a second chance to see trees full of normally secretive warblers, though some species have been fairly conspicuous all summer. American Redstarts are striking warblers that breed in Maine. Females and young birds have gray upperparts with a patch of yellow under each wing and yellow on the outer tail feathers. Males have black upperparts with blaze orange where the females have yellow, plus an extra bar of orange on the wing. Their long tails with flashes of color and acrobatic foraging style help birders pick them out in a crowd.
Like most warblers, they’re primarily insectivorous, and are feasting right now as they migrate south to their winter homes in Central America, northern South America, and the Caribbean. They’ll spend the nonbreeding season in a variety of habitats, including mangrove forests, shade coffee plantations, and scrubby vegetation. As they flit around these forests and thickets, they’ll flash their bright, colorful wing and tail patches to startle insects, then pick them off with their thin, tweezer-like beaks. Look for them darting around in the leaves, catching insects in midair, and even hovering at the tips of branches. You can also listen for their nocturnal flight calls, starting a couple of hours after sunset. They make a short rising “tswee,” like an auditory check mark. Many birds, including most warblers, migrate at night to avoid predators and take advantage of cooler temperatures (imagine exercising for hours in a down jacket!). American Redstart migration peaks in late September and the first half of October.
Backyard Bird of the Month is a feature by Maine Audubon created for the Maine Home Garden News, the newsletter of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard
