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Boreal Birds of the Philadelphia Area (view list)

Philadelphia is known for its cream cheese and cheesesteaks but did you know that the city gave its name to a small songbird that nests almost entirely within the boreal forest of Canada? That species, the Philadelphia Vireo, was named for the city where it was discovered in 1851 though it is actually an uncommon migrant (more abundant in the fall) in the region. The species winters in Central America from Guatemala and Belize south to Panama.

At least 39 of the 90 boreal breeding species that the Philadelphia area hosts are, like the Philadelphia Vireo, on their way to Central or South America or the Caribbean to spend the winter. Gray-cheeked Thrushes, which migrate through in October, will spend the winter in lush tropical forests in the foothills of the eastern Andes Mountains from Venezuela to Brazil. The Blue-winged Teal flocks that you may see in Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in the fall may have nested in the Northwest Territories of Canada and may be on their way to winter in the oppressive heat of Bigi Pan in Surinam along the coast of northern South America.

Other species spend the winter in the Philadelphia area or within the southern U.S. The Rusty Blackbird, an October migrant in wet woodlands in the Philadelphia area whose call sounds like a rusty hinge, has declined by an estimated 90% over the last 30 years within its boreal forest breeding range. Of the 350 or so regularly-occurring bird species in the Philadelphia area, more than 25% (90 species) have breeding ranges that lie wholly or largely within the boreal forest of Canada.