Cerulean Warbler

About the Cerulean Warbler

The Cerulean Warbler is the sky-blue jewel of the eastern forest canopy - the male a clear cerulean blue above and white below with a thin dark necklace across the chest and two white wing bars; the female a soft blue-green with a pale eyebrow. It is one of the most sought-after warblers in North America, and one of the hardest to see well, because it lives at the very top of the tallest trees.

Ceruleans glean caterpillars and small insects high in the canopy and sing a fast, buzzy, rising song that ends in a high trill - usually the only clue that one is overhead. The species has declined more steeply than almost any other North American songbird over the last half-century, losing mature forest on both its breeding grounds and its Andean wintering grounds, and is listed as Near Threatened.

In Texas the Cerulean Warbler is a scarce spring migrant, most often found on the upper coast in late April, and a genuinely notable bird anywhere inland. The individual photographed here was working the creekside trees along Lake Creek Trail in Williamson County at the end of April 2025 - a standout Central Texas record.