Photo by Andrew Cannizzaro
Golden-Winged Warbler
A confession: I don’t think that I have ever seen or heard a Golden-Winged Warbler. My knowledge of this busy and beautiful songbird is based on what I have learned from Cornell University’s Ornithology Lab, “All About Birds.”
The Golden-Winged Warbler is a warbler with a color pattern all its own. They are slim, silvery gray birds with golden flashes on the head and wings. They breed in wet, shrubby tangles of the Upper Midwest and Appalachians, and spend winters in open woodlands and shade-coffee plantations of Central and South America. They have suffered severe population declines in the last half-century. They often hybridize with Blue-winged Warblers, producing a range of distinctive forms.
I have asked my Minnesota friends if they have heard and seen the Golden-Winged Warbler, especially in May and June. Minnesota has the highest remaining density of Golden-winged Warblers, with about half the global population in Minnesota. Golden-winged Warblers have suffered one of the steepest population declines of any songbird species in the past 45 years. The Cornell Lab and partners in the Golden-winged Warbler Working Group have a conservation plan to stop the decline and grow the population 50% by the year 2050.
What do you love about this particular creature?
What do they reveal to you about God and our faith?
Nadia Bolz Weber reminded me in a recent blog about the phenomenon that occurred a couple of months into Covid in 2020. Millions of people were asking Google, “Are birds getting louder?” The answer is probably not. There was decreased noise pollution, especially during the early months of COVID, as fewer people were driving and we found safer places to gather outside. For many people, including myself, birds were being heard and listened to more than ever before.
“To sing is to pray twice” is often attributed to St. Augustine. Music is my go-to form of prayer. My singing is not the same as the Golden-Winged Warbler. I am not a warbler who sings or whistles with quick, continuous changes in pitch – at least I hope not! I do, however, desire that my prayer life, like that of the Golden-Winged Warbler’s tune, is one continuous song of praise to my creator.
Author - The Rev. Dr. Anita Louise Schell
A native of Lancaster, PA, The Rev. Dr. Anita Louise Schell has served in congregations and schools in New York City, Philadelphia, Vermont, and Rhode Island. She is the Rector of St. Ann’s, Old Lyme, CT. She holds degrees in music, English literature, and world religions from Brown University, General Seminary, and the Episcopal Divinity School, where she wrote her doctoral thesis on the topic of environmental justice. Anita served as President of RI Interfaith Power & Light. She is a Board Director for the Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, RI and is Convener of the Environmental Network of the Episcopal Church in CT. She is a member of the Alumni Executive Committee of the General Theological Seminary.
God of abundance and beauty, you have filled your world with so many lovely creatures, great and small. We confess that we have not always cherished and cared for your creatures, great and small. We pray that we may be restored to a right relationship with all creation, especially with the birds in all their habitats. All this we pray in the name of the one who instructed his followers to, "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them,” Jesus Christ our Lord.