A PASSION FOR PROTHONOTARIES

Most weeks during the spring and summer, Jackson Audubon Society’s PROW team is a group on a mission. PROW is ornithological shorthand for Prothonotary Warbler, the drop-dead gorgeous wood warbler that is even more stunning in person than in photos. The PROW team is the adopted name of our volunteers who brave the biting insects, alligators, and muggy Mississippi weather to document the success of our long-term nest box project.

This bird is known by some as the “golden swamp warbler” or “swamp canary.” Most birders and ornithologists prefer Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea). The name is thought to originate from prothonotaries, clerks in the Catholic Church who wore yellow vestments.

The location of our project is LeFleur’s Bluff State Park, a 305-acre urban green space that borders the Pearl River near Jackson, Mississippi. The park is a National Audubon Society Important Bird Area and provides habitat for Swainson’s and Hooded Warblers, Yellow-billed Cuckoos, and other Neotropical migrants besides Prothonotaries. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology states that the warblers avoid patches of forest less than 250 acres. This is one reason for their strong presence in the park, along with the habitat that it provides.

Since 2000, JAS has been maintaining nest boxes in the park for Prothonotaries. It is safe to say that our Audubon chapter has a passion for these birds. In 2019, we decided to discover just how much the nest boxes were contributing to their