Unlike the northern waterthrush, which breeds across southern Canada, New England and the Great Lakes region, the Louisiana waterthrush summers throughout most of the eastern U.S., including the Deep South (Florida excluded). Favoring wooded streams and bogs, these birds wander atop logs and boulders or along muddy banks, bobbing their tail as they search for insects and aquatic invertebrates.
This morning, a friend and I were fortunate to encounter a Louisiana waterthrush at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area; as is often the case, it was in a shaded ravine where water drained from one of the refuge pools. Prothonotary warblers, also drawn to riparian woodlands, joined the waterthrush but fed primarily in the trees and shrubs.
Both northern and Louisiana waterthrushes winter in Central America or on Caribbean islands. During the spring and fall migrations, both species may thus be encountered in the Southeastern U.S. but only the aptly named Louisiana waterthrush stops to nest in the hot, humid confines of the Southeast and southern Midwest.
