Pine Warbler, Williamsburg, MA, Feb 13, 2026
Pine Warbler, Williamsburg, MA, Feb 13, 2026
Pine Warbler, Williamsburg, MA, Feb 13, 2026
I had the morning free today and my main focus was on trying to track down a Pine Warbler that has been coming to a feeder at a private residence in Williamsburg since later January. I first heard about it when the homeowners reported it to eBird. At the time I was down in Florida and although I hoped it would stick around until I got back home I did not hold out a lot of hope as the weather turned bitter cold with snow and wind for weeks. Once I got home I sent an email to see if the bird was still around and got a response back that the warbler was indeed still around! After a few back and forth emails I set up Friday morning to stop by. Although a cold morning with lows around 10, the wind was forecast to be light and the temperatures would hopefully respond quickly to the full sun so a good morning to try for it. I arrived around 8AM and met Rick who invited me to sit on the porch and watch the feeders at the front of the house. He mentioned the warbler had been in fairly recently. There were hundreds of American Goldfinches and I scanned through them over and over until I finally picked up the Pine Warbler as he waded through the crowd of goldfinches and then came into the mealworm feeder. He picked up a few mealworms and then disappeared for 25+ minutes before making a return trip to the feeder. Again he stayed just a short time before heading off to parts unknown. I suspect he is visiting another feeder nearby. It was quite pleasant sitting on the deck, talking with Rick and waiting for the warbler to return. My sincere to thanks to both Rick and Dave for allowing me to stop by and see the warbler.
Pine Warblers are very infrequent overwintering visitors to the area and I will look at the records over the last 25 years or so. Most years there are no Pine Warblers that overwinter here at all. Within Hampshire County there are just a handful of records. One overwintered at a private residence in Granby from January through February and fed on suet. Another showed at a feeder in Northampton in December of 2022 and continued to the end of January of 2023 and again was feeding on suet. A major anomaly occurred during the winter of 2023-2024 when double digit counts of Pine Warblers showed up in the south Quabbin area. In late February I had up to eleven individuals in Belchertown alone at three separate locations. The only reason I can come up with for the exceptionally large numbers of overwinter Pine Warblers was a huge Eastern White Pine cone crop and a relatively mild winter overall. There are just a couple other records in the area during this 25 year period so most years feature no Pine Warblers at all so the species remains a very uncommon species in the area in the winter and any that are found are unusual for sure.
After seeing the Pine Warbler I made a stop at Arcadia and had at least two Yellow rumped Warblers so I ended up with two species of warbler for the day...not bad for mid February.
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