Male Hooded Warbler in his preferred habitat of dense understory. In this case north GA rhododendron & mountain laurel along a small creek.
Hooded Warblers are bucking the trend of declining populations. Their numbers are actually increasing as they expand their breeding ground range northward into New England & Ontario as average temperatures increase.
This good news gets better. Hooded Warblers are not a direct threat to the species they encounter in the new range. They are hard core insectivores and pose light competition for food resources. They nest on the ground in dense cover & do not poach nest sites or cavities in the canopy.
Their expansion is now considered an indicator of a healthy forest ecosystem, especially forests that are returning to a mature state after agricultural use or intense logging. (Reference: Birds of the World)
Photography note: 1/60, f5.6, 12,500 on OMSystem OM-1mk2, 150-400 TC1.25 @ 500mm (1,000 eq). I usually do not include settings but did in this case to dispel the Conventional Wisdom Zombie that says birds shot on long telephoto must always be shot at SS of 1,000+ @ base ISO. This is not possible in dark understory. The work around is to shoot a burst & hope to capture at least 1 frame when the subject is ‘still’ & the stabilization & holding technique stops lens motion blur. This is 1 of 2 frames with acceptable sharpness out of burst of 10.