Saving the Golden-Cheeked Warbler

It’s often hard to hear over the constant construction and horn-honking here in the city, but at the Blair Woods Nature Preserve in East Austin, bird calls drown out the sounds of traffic and jackhammers. 

I visited this wooded ten-acre plot in hopes of spotting the Golden-Cheeked Warbler, a Texas native. I carefully listened for a buzzy zee zoo zeedee zeep, the call commonly associated with the endangered warbler. Unfortunately, because of their decreasing numbers and my untrained ears and eyes, my mission was unsuccessful.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that there are only about 27,000 Golden-cheeked Warblers in existence today. These birds breed solely in the Hill Country of Central Texas, making each one a Native Texan, and many Native Austinites.  While they do migrate south for the winters, mating pairs raise their young in nests made primarily from juniper bark. Sadly for the warblers and their offspring, many of the juniper trees in the area have been cut down to increase space for urban development.

I sat down with Nicole Netherton, the executive director of Travis Audubon, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting local wildlife and educating folks about our woodland neighbors, seeking to learn more about the Golden-cheeked warbler. 

“They are a very unique migratory songbird,”  Netherton said, “mostly because they only nest in 29 counties here in Central Texas.”

Come fall, the population travels in a euphonic flock of all sorts of warblers to Central America, specifically Guatemala and Mexico. While south, the Golden-cheeks adopt a more humble posture compared to their known chutzpah here in Texas.

“When they are here,” said Netherton, “they are so focused on nesting. The male will go to the top of the tree and sing and sing and sing. They are very gregarious, they like to show off and bring a lot of attention to themselves, very obviously Texans.”

According to Netherton, the best thing we can do to preserve the species is to educate ourselves and others on the ecosystem we have encroached upon. 

“I think it’s important to recognize how special this bird is,” Netherton said. “I really encourage people to support organizations like Travis Audubon Society which are creating new habitats for the Golden-Cheek and consistently monitoring their progress.”

These warblers are back in Austin for the spring and summer and, according to Netherton, are pretty easy to spot around the city. It was hard for me to hide my disappointment when Netherton said this. I can’t help but wonder if I scared them away with the clinking of my keys, or if they were perched above me the whole time and I am just not nearly as observant as I thought. It doesn’t matter though, because I didn’t need to see the Golden-cheeked Warbler to fall in love with it and know it deserves protection. 

Photos by Travis Audubon