Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area, southwest of Columbia, hosts spectacular congregations of waterfowl during the spring and fall migrations. During the summer, the refuge is a more tranquil place but still harbors a superb variety of wildlife. Among these are prothonotary warblers, attractive insectivores that inhabit the Midwest from late April through mid September; at Eagle Bluffs, they are especially common along the levee trail that parallels the Missouri River.
Favoring bottomland forest and riparian woodlands, prothonotary warblers are rarely found far from water. The brilliant gold plumage of the males, contrasting with their blue-gray wings and tail, makes them easy to spot among the flooded timber; females are adorned with a duller version of the same plumage but are also attractive birds. If not immediately seen, their loud, ringing song (a series of tweets) heralds their presence and the warblers soon come into view, hunting for insects and larvae.
Unlike other warblers, prothonotaries nest in abandoned woodpecker cavities or in crevices that have opened on the trunk or lower limbs of drowned trees; a cup of moss and other plant debris is constructed within the cavity and six, purple-spotted eggs are usually laid. By late summer, these beautiful songbirds depart for wintering grounds in Central and South America, staying ahead of autumn cold fronts that might eliminate their prey.
