The Rarest of Songbirds Found a Surprising New Home

A remarkably rare and threatened North American songbird appears to have found a new home in an unlikely place: the sprawling "biological deserts" of commercial pine farms. Conservationists had been concerned that the Swainson's warbler would ever boast a stable and unthreatened population. Now, with this new discovery, things are looking positive for the first time in decades.

According to a study recently published in the journal Bird Conservation International, populations of the Swainson's warbler (Limnothlypis swainsonii) have seen a surprising spike after settling on nearly 16 million hectares of pine farm stretching from eastern Texas to southeastern Virginia.

The study details an analysis of about two decades of field studies, and suggests that if current trends continue, forests managed as short-rotation pine plantations will support the majority of Swainson's warblers by the end of this century.

These kind of "commercial forests," planted and maintained for the sake of selling the trees, have long been feared by ecologists as "biological deserts" because they lack flora diversity. This limits the number and intricacy of ecologies found in these forests, simultaneously limiting what kind of wildlife can thrive there. But for the Swainson's warbler, it appears these unusual forests are an ecological oasis.

"This is a prime example of how intensive management of forest lands for industrial purposes can have a direct impact on bird populations in a positive way," study author Gary Graves, curator of birds in the Department of Vertebrate Zoology at the Museum of Natural History, said in a statement.

According to the study, there is a seven-to-eight year window when pine farm forests are dense enough to support the warbler. And because these windows can vary from plantation-to-plantation, Graves believes that the warblers will likely relocate to nearby younger plantations when their current homes begin to thin out.