Pine Warblers live year round with us. They don’t head to the tropics in winter like their neotropical cousins. They are literally and figuratively a bright spot on drab, grey, winter days. Especially our days of ‘wintry mix’.
What holds them here is their fondness for, guess what, pine nuts. Something we have a lot of in the SE. In fact, as we have lost decidious forest trees which are replaced by pines, the pine warbler population has increased slightly over the last 50 years.
I need to place a caveat on this. This is true for pine forest growth except the jam packed monoculture of pulp pine tracts. These aren’t good habitat for any species. Everything that is green and looks natural when you drive by is not healthy habitat.
Terchnical Note: The in-flight shots were taken in the ProCapture mode of my Olympus OMD EM1X