By Sally Siko

With spring migration ahead, soon millions of birds will move through the Carolinas on their way to their breeding grounds. One of the most beautiful species that will make its way across the Tarheel State is the Blue winged Warbler.
Dressed in bright yellow plumage combined with bluish gray wings and a jet black stripe across its eye, Blue wings are indeed striking looking birds.
I was so excited to finally grab a few photos of this species last spring after years of missing them.
Hoping I’ll have another chance to do the same again in a few weeks.

In the past their breeding range extended from the open woodlands of Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia northern Alabama, and northern Georgia.Today, Blue-winged Warblers have been expanding northward and now can be found throughout southern New England, southern Ontario, and the southern portions of the Great Lakes states.In fact some of the highest breeding densities of Blue wings can be found in the higher elevations of the Appalachian Mountains, in the northern tier of the mid-Atlantic states, and even as far west as Wisconsin and Michigan.
That being said a small number of Blue wings have been documented nesting in the Blue Ridge mountains of western North Carolina though the exact numbers of breeding pairs remains a mystery.

Generally Blue winged Warblers are best found across the Carolinas during migratory periods from late April through mid May and again from late August through late September.
Listen for their distinctive call of “beeee-buzzzz zzza zzza” song when walking in a grassy field lining a wooded area containing thick underbrush. They’ll often pop out from the dark thickets at the woods edge into the open to flutter on the edges of trees and bushes in an effort to glean insects hiding in the leaves. Aren’t they lovely?

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my mighty mirrored monster, the @canonusa #5Ds