Recent Sightings of Kirtland's Warblers on San Salvador Island, The Bahamas

Here we present recent accounts of Kirtland's Warblers (Setophaga kirtlandii) captured and observed on San Salvador Island, The Bahamas, in 2012 and 2013. We conducted mist-netting and passive surveys in a variety of habitats on the island from January-March 2012 and December 2012-March 2013. We captured four warblers and sighted at least six other individuals, including two color-banded birds originally banded near Mack Lake, Michigan, USA. Warblers were primarily captured or observed in coastal scrub and inland low coppice habitats where vegetation height is <4 m, has a scrub/shrub appearance, and openings because of disturbance. These habitats are similar to habitats preferred by Kirtland's Warblers on other Bahamian islands, and also have fruiting plants the warblers prefer such as Erithalis fruticosa, and Lantana involucrata. To our knowledge, these are the first confirmed cases of observed Kirtland's Warblers on the island in over 46 years.