Report Nr. 3150 The Kirtland's Warbler in 1991

The first Kirtland's warbler (Dendroica kirtlandii) census was organized by Harold Mayfield in 1951. The census was to be repeated every 10 years and the second census in 1961 recorded a total similar to that of 1951. The census of 1971 however revealed a precipitous drop in the population--a decline of approximately 60 percent from the 1961 count. In order to monitor the population more closely, censuses have been conducted every year since 1971. The 1991 census found 347 singing male Kirtland's warblers in Michigan. This represents a significant increase of 31 percent from the 1990 count of 265, and an encouragingly substantial increase of 108 percent from 1987 when the count was only 167.