By: Chance Hines
6/25/25

For the past two springs, as mornings warm and swamps come alive, CCB has scoured southeastern Virginia in search of Wayne’s warbler, the coastal subspecies of the black-throated green warbler. Though difficult to spot high in the canopy, the species’ buzzy, unmistakable song pierces the stillness of the swamp where it occurs.

Wayne’s Warbler (Setophaga virens waynei) is genetically distinct from the nominate black-throated green warbler and currently petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Its breeding is closely tied to mature, undisturbed forests adjacent to swamps, habitats that have largely been lost to logging across its range. Today, the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (GDSNWR) holds some of the last significant tracts of the kind of mature forest Wayne’s Warbler prefers, making it a critical refuge for the population.

The 2024 survey effort focused almost exclusively within Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (GDSNWR) and Wayne’s warblers were detected at 105 of 298 locations surveyed. This year, we expanded the survey network outside the core swamp, while retaining a subset of points from 2024 to estimate year-to-year changes. In 2025, detections dropped to 50 out of 291 points because of the form’s sparse distribution outside the refuge. Of those 50 occupied locations, 44 were points retained from the previous year, and two were newly added points within the refuge. The remaining four detections, the only ones from outside last year’s survey area, were located within just a few kilometers of the swamp, underscoring its importance as the population stronghold.

While the two survey efforts highlight the species’ distribution in Virginia, the subset of retained points surveyed in both years offers insight into season-to-season change. Among those sites, more points were occupied by Wayne’s warblers in 2025 than in 2024, suggesting a possible uptick in the population. Areas that were consistently occupied in 2024 remained so in 2025, and several sites that were previously silent had detections this year.

Of course, with only two years of data, it’s difficult to know whether this represents a true trend or simply annual variation. Still, the pattern mirrors what’s been observed in broader populations of black-throated green warblers, from the Appalachians east to the hills of Arkansas, where local populations have shown signs of rapid expansion. Wayne’s Warbler, despite its smaller range and more specialized habitat, may be following suit, at least here in the northern edge of its distribution in Virginia.

For a bird that nests in shadowy swamps and sings from the treetops, these point counts are our clearest way to hear what the population is telling us. Continued monitoring is needed to better understand local population trends and how the birds use the habitat during the breeding season. Expanding future surveys southward into the Carolinas would also provide context, allowing us to compare dynamics across the species’ full range.