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Golden-winged Warbler Non-breeding Season Conservation Plan
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The Golden-winged Warbler Non-breeding Season Conservation Plan (Chapter 4 of the Goldenwinged
Warbler Conservation Plan) describes the non-breeding ecology of the Golden-winged
Warbler and proposes concrete actions to maintain habitat throughout its stationary nonbreeding
range (hereafter winter range). The plan is intended for use by conservation
practitioners, land managers, and governmental agencies both in North America and Latin
America. This plan provides guidance on where conservation investment in Latin America will
have the greatest impact on Golden-winged Warbler habitat and recommends conservation
actions to address the specific threats to habitat retention in the winter range. This plan is also
intended for use at the country level for all Latin American countries within the Golden-winged
Warbler winter range. For each country, this plan prioritizes areas where conservation action
should begin immediately, defines five-year conservation goals, and proposes a conservation
strategy to meet those goals by the year 2020.
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Information Materials
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Fact Sheets
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Golden-Winged Warbler General Fact Sheets
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Golden-winged Warbler Poster
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This poster from the Golden-winged Warbler Working Group provides simple ways to help the Golden-winged Warbler, as well as outlines threats to Golden-winged Warblers during migration and the nonbreeding season.
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Information Materials
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Fact Sheets
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Golden-Winged Warbler General Fact Sheets
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Golden-winged Warbler Status Review and Conservation Plan
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The Golden-winged Warbler Status Review was initiated over a decade ago when David Buehler, John Confer, and Ron Canterbury were funded by the US Fish & Wildlife Service to elaborate on what was originally a status assessment begun by Chuck Hunter in 1999. Over time, that original project received input from others and underwent numerous stalls, revisions, and reviews. The continuous stream of new information that so rapidly outpaced the writing of the document is actually a tribute to the tremendous dedication and energy of the Golden-winged Warbler Working Group and its partners. In this version of the Status Review, survey and trend estimates have been updated to include 2009 BBS trend information. Genetic data were updated to include birds sampled during the 2010 breeding season. We are pleased finally to release the Status Review, at the same time acknowledging that new research and conservation action will just as quickly outdate much of the information it summarizes. We prefer to think of this document as a Status Transition to a more hopeful future.
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Fact Sheets
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Golden-Winged Warbler General Fact Sheets
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Multiscale drivers of restoration outcomes for an imperiled songbird
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Habitat restoration is a cornerstone of conservation, particularly for habitat-limited species. However, restoration efforts are
seldom rigorously monitored at meaningful spatial scales. Poor understanding of how species respond to habitat restoration
programs limits conservation efficacy for habitat-restricted species like the Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera,
GWWA). We provide one of the first concerted assessments of a national conservation program aimed at restoring songbird
habitat across its breeding range. We studied GWWA response to forest habitat restoration across two broad regions with
opposing population trajectories and assessed factors driving species use of restored habitats across multiple spatial scales.
From 2015 to 2017, we conducted 1,145 (n = 457 locations) and 519 point counts (n = 215 locations) across the Appalachian
Mountains and Great Lakes (respectively) within restored habitats. Warbler abundance within restored habitats across the
Great Lakes varied with latitude, longitude, elevation, forest type, and number of growing seasons. In the Appalachian Mountains,
occupancy ( ^ ψ) varied with longitude, elevation, forest type, and number of growing seasons. Detections were restricted
to areas within close proximity to population centers (usually <24 km) in the Appalachian Mountains, where GWWAs are rare
( ^ ψ= 0.22, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.20–0.25), but not in the Great Lakes, whereGWWAs remain common ( ^ ψ= 0.87, 95%
CI: 0.84–0.90). Our study suggests that, even when best management practices are carefully implemented, restoration outcomes
vary within/across regions and with multiscale habitat attributes. Although assessments of concerted habitat restoration efforts
remain uncommon, our study demonstrates the value of monitoring data in the adaptive management process for imperiled
species.
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Research
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WLFW Outcomes: Funded Research
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Regional abundance and local breeding productivity explain occupancy of restored habitats in a migratory songbird
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Ecological restoration is a key tool in offsetting habitat loss that threatens biodiversity worldwide, but few
projects are rigorously evaluated to determine if conservation objectives are achieved. We tested whether restoration
outcomes for an imperiled bird, the Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera; GWWA) met the
assumptions of the ‘Field of Dreams’ hypothesis or whether local and regional population dynamics impacted
restoration success. From 2015 to 18, we surveyed 514 points located in recently restored successional habitats.
We used new- and published data on the survival of 341 nests and 258 fledglings to estimate GWWA breeding
productivity. Occupancy and colonization of restored habitats were significantly higher in our Western Study
Region (Minnesota and Wisconsin) than our Eastern Study Region (Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey), a
pattern that mirrored broader regional population trends. At local scales, productivity was high in Eastern
Pennsylvania (> 3 independent juveniles/pair/year) but low in Central Pennsylvania (1 juvenile/pair/year)
while both Western and Central Minnesota hosted intermediate productivity (between 1 and 2 juveniles/pair/
year). Productivity and occupancy covaried locally in the Eastern Study Region, while occupancy was high in the
Western Study Region, despite intermediate productivity. These differences have profound implications for restoration
outcomes, as GWWA possessed robust capacity to respond to habitat restoration in both regions, but
this capacity was conditional upon local productivity where the species is rare. Our findings suggest that, even
when restoration efforts are focused on a single species and use comparable prescriptions, interactions among
processes governing habitat selection, settlement, and productivity can yield variable restoration outcomes.
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Research
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WLFW Outcomes: Funded Research
