KIWA
Jay Davis
September 14, 2026
I'm a birder, I guess that's obvious.
But I've never been much of a "lister" — meaning I don't often chase birds to add to my life list of birds. I'm generally content to see the birds in my neighborhood or in the place I am visiting. Of course, I do go places that have exciting birds — which mostly means warblers to me.
I love warblers. Which is why I did a long road trip this spring to New Jersey and then to the shore of Lake Erie and specifically Magee Marsh for the Biggest Week in American Birding.
My goal was to be in places where waves of migrating warblers would be passing through and I would get the chance to observe and hear (!) as many as possible, including Blackburnian Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, and well — just about any other warbler. It is possible to see 30 plus species of warblers in eastern North America and every one is a beautiful, glorious, tiny wonder.
I think one thing I like about warblers is that they aren't easy. They are tiny, they are active, many of them like to stay in treetops or woody thickets and it's hard to get a good look at them. Even worse, many of them you need to hear first and, more frustratingly, know what you are hearing! So every sighting is like winning a little lottery.
My trip did not disappoint. My Big Day at the Sandy Hook Century Run (morning eBird checklist) in New Jersey and my days at Magee Marsh got me lots of great looks at warblers.
That leads me to my last day in Ohio — and the perhaps mysterious title of this post. I was on my own that day as my Ohio friends had returned to their normal boring lives while I went back for one more day at Magee Marsh. And even though my famous (in Ohio!) birder friend Susan Kailholz was back at work, she nevertheless sent this message to our "flock" texting group at 9:12AM on Wednesday, May 13th:
If anyone wants to turn around there's a Kirtland at biggest week right now lol
Now THAT is a bird I will chase!
Kirtland's Warblers are extremely rare, especially away from their breeding grounds in Michigan or their wintering grounds in the Bahamas. In 2012, after extensive conservation efforts to help them recover, the number of individuals topped 4,000. I don't know the number today but their continued existence is almost completely dependent on conservation efforts — which is sobering.
So ok, yeah, maybe I do chase sometimes. Apparently I chase first-time-seen-in-my-lifetime ("lifer") warblers. :-)
Once Susan got the deets on where to find it, it wasn't hard to find.
Despite the crowds (and they would continue for days), the bird seemed unfazed and continued to feed with little regard for the crazy humans.
It was an unexpected and wonderful experience. Thank you, Susan!
Oh! And "KIWA" is the 4-letter banding code for Kirtland's Warbler. You can find a nice list of the codes here: North American Bird Banding Codes.