Laura Erickson's For the Birds

This stunning warbler of the treetops was not named for the male’s black and flaming orange colors but for Anna Blackburn, an English woman who funded some ornithological expeditions. It’s fairly common in mature mixed forests of the north, but more easily heard (if you still have your high-frequency hearing) than seen. It does often frequent ground-level birdbaths, especially if it hears dripping water.

To hear the high-frequency songs and calls of this or any other species with high-pitched vocalizations, even with my hearing aids, and to get a direction for them, I use Lang Elliott’s “Hear Birds Again”. The app is free to download, and the website has clear and easy directions to make the fairly inexpensive binaural headphones. To know if the bird is there in the first place, I use the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Merlin app.