In my experience, it’s a warm morning in mid-May when one of our largest warblers announces it is back here in the North Country, with its explosive “teacher-teacher-teacher!”
It’s Seirus aurocapilla, otherwise known as the ovenbird, one of the most common warbler species in our region and one that is never shy about announcing its presence. The ovenbird is widely distributed in North America during the summer months but is most abundant near the western half of Lake Superior where it thrives in our vast areas of mixed forest. Indeed, recent breeding surveys have found that the ovenbird is the most common bird in summer within the Superior National Forest.
While most warblers live relatively high in the trees, the ovenbird has a different strategy. It’s a ground gleaner that hunts for insects and arthropods amid the leaf litter on the forest floor. Even their nests are on the ground, typically tucked well-hidden amid a pile of dead branches or other forest debris. Their nests are unusual, built like a dome with a side entrance, much like an old-fashioned earthen oven— a creation that inspired this bird’s common name.
These are birds of the deep woods, that typically aren’t found along open edges. While I can usually hear them singing from our front yard on the ridge overlooking the Lost Lake Swamp, they rarely ever show up within sight of the yard. But walk into the woods a couple hundred feet and you’ll enter the ovenbird’s realm.
Like most warblers, ovenbirds are more easily heard than seen. With its loud “teacher-teacher” call, you might think these birds would be easy to spot, but like most ground-dwelling birds, the ovenbird is well camouflaged, with an olive-brown back, dark spots on a white belly, and with a distinctive pale orange stripe running front to back along the top of its head. Many times, I’ve stood and searched in vain for a male ovenbird calling from close-by in a perch somewhere in the understory. Unless they move, they can seem nearly invisible at times.
One way to get them to move is with a recording. Over the years, while out photographing, I’ve occasionally used bird recordings to bring birds within better range of my lens. And I know of no bird that will react as readily and as dramatically as an ovenbird. The slightest hint of another male of the species in their territory is guaranteed to irritate and it sends them into a high-speed response, complete with harsh calls and short bursts of flight in varying directions while trying to spot the unholy interloper.
Ovenbirds, as with most warblers, spend winters in Central America, but make the journey to our region each spring to take advantage of our region’s renowned insect explosion to feed their young. Nestling birds grow incredibly quickly, which is key to their survival. They are the equivalent of “sitting ducks” while confined to their nests, so the faster they can grow, the sooner they’ll be out of the nest and better able to avoid predators. The ovenbird will typically lay 4-6 eggs and once hatched, it takes the nestlings just over a week to fledge. But that incredibly rapid growth requires an enormous amount of calories and the forests of the North Country can (and do) easily provide that energy source. That’s the reason our region attracts a greater diversity of birds in spring and summer than almost any other place in North America. To modify that old Arby’s catch phrase: “We’ve got THE BUGS!”
So, the next time you’re out in the woods, listen for the ovenbird’s distinctive call. And don’t forget the bug spray.