Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas 1
Atlas 1 data collected from 1975-1979

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Cerulean Warbler
Dendroica cerulea

State Status: Special Concern
Egg Dates:
Number of broods:

The breeding of the Cerulean Warbler in Massachusetts is a relatively recent event, coinciding with a serious decline throughout most of its range (Dunn & Garrett 1997). Despite the scattered, irregular presence of singing males since the 1950s, mostly in central and western Massachusetts, this species was not “confirmed” as a breeder until 1989, when adults were discovered feeding young at Quabbin Reservoir, Petersham, Worcester County, from July 2 to 9 (Brownrigg & Brownrigg 1989). Since that initial confirmation, a very few pairs of Cerulean Warblers have nested more or less annually in the Quabbin Reservoir area and possibly at one or two sites in the Connecticut River valley. The total Massachusetts breeding population is probably under 10 pairs.

At times other than the breeding season, the Cerulean Warbler is a regular but rare spring and late-summer to early-fall transient.

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Copyright © 2003 edited by Wayne R. Petersen and W. Roger Meservey. Published by the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Distributed by the University of Massachusetts Press, P.O. Box 429, Amherst, Massachusetts 01004-0429.

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