Vermivora bachmanii Audubon, 1833 (1834?)
Bachman's warbler, Bachmann’s warbler (orth. error used by Tyrberg, 2009:99)
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Fringilla bachmanii Audubon, 1833; Vermivora bachmanni Audubon, 1833 (1834?) [orth. error used by Tyrberg, 2009:99]
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: 1962; 1988 (Martin et al., 2023)
IUCN RedList status: Critically Endangered
One of numerous species rediscovered prior to it's second extinction (last record 1833-rediscovered 1901). The last record of the species (in 1988?), a female, has been disputed (see Butchart et al., 2018b).
Distribution
USA (wintered in Cuba)
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
USNM 204985-204990 (six males collected by Howell, 1911; see Robbins, 2018:276)
Media
Sound recordings: https://search.macaulaylibrary.org/catalog?taxonCode=bacwar&q=Bachman%27s%20Warbler%20-%20Vermivora%20bachmanii
Above: A male Bachman's Warbler. Photo by Jerry A. Payne, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bugwood.org. CCA 3.0 License. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
References
Original scientific description:
Audubon, J. J. (1834). Ornithological Biography. Vol. 2. Edinburgh.
Other references:
Anonymous. (1964). List of rare birds, including those thought to be so but of which detailed information is still lacking. IUCN Bulletin 10(Special Supplement): 4 pp.
Barber, Robert D. (1982 or later). A recent record of the Bachman's Warbler in Florida. Florida Field Naturalist 13: 64-66.
BirdLife International. (2012). Vermivora bachmanii. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.1. (www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 29 July 2012.
Butchart, Stuart H. M., Lowe, Stephen, Martin, Rob W., Symes, Andy, Westrip, James R. S. and Wheatley, Hannah. (2018a). Which bird species have gone extinct? A novel quantitative classification approach. Biological Conservation 227: 9-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.08.014
Butchart, Stuart H. M., Stattersfield, A. J. and Brooks, T. M. (2006). Going or gone: defining ‘Possibly Extinct’ species to give a truer picture of recent extinctions. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 126A: 7-24.
Butchart, Stuart H. M., Wheatley, Hannah, Lowe, Stephen, Westrip, James R. S., Symes, Andy and Martin, Rob W. (2018b). Data for: Which bird species have gone extinct? A novel quantitative classification approach. Mendeley Data, V1, doi: 10.17632/vvjhpmyxb4.1
Colin J. Carlson1,2,*, Kevin R. Burgio3, 4, Tad A. Dallas5 and Alexander L. Bond
Carlson, Colin J., Burgio, Kevin R., Dallas, Tad A. and Bond, Alexander L. (2018). Spatial extinction date estimation: a novel method for reconstructing spatiotemporal patterns of extinction and identifying potential zones of rediscovery. bioRxiv preprint. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/279679
Chamberlain, E.B. 1958. Bachman’s warbler in South Carolina. Chat 22:73-74, 77.
Ehrlich, Paul R., Dobkin, David S. and Wheye, Darryl. (1988). The Birder's Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds. New York: Simon and Schuster. [includes an essay entitled "The Fate of Bachman's Warbler" on pp. 505 (pbk.)]
Ehrlich, Paul R., Dobkin, David S. and Wheye, Darryl. (1992). Birds in Jeopardy: The Imperiled and Extinct Birds of the United States and Canada, Including Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. 259 pp.
Elphick, Chris S., Roberts, David L. and Reed, J. Michael. (2010). Estimated dates of recent extinctions for North American and Hawaiian birds. Biological Conservation 143: 617-624.
Fisher, Diana O. and Humphreys, Aelys M. (2024). Evidence for modern extinction in plants and animals. Biological Conservation 298: 110772. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110772
Forsythe, D. M. (1991). South Carolina Bachman’s Warbler Survey. Final Grant Report, Cooperative Agreement no. 14-16-0004-89-968, between U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service and South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Department. Charleston, South Carolina.
Fuller, Errol. (2013). Lost Animals: Extinction and the Photographic Record. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Hamel, P. B. (1976). Searches for Bachman’s warbler in I’On Swamp, South Carolina. Unpublished report. 24 p. USDA For. Serv., Southeast For. Exp. Stn., Clemson, S.C.
Hamel, P. B. (1977a). Status of the Bachman’s Warbler, and the Ecological, Evolutionary, and Historical Factors Responsible for its Decline. Progress Report. Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina. August 1977.
Hamel, P. B. (1997b). Final Report to the National Audubon Society for “A Field Study to Determine the Status of Bachman’s warbler on the Francis Beidler Memorial Forest, South Carolina.” 8 p.
Hamel, P. B. (1986). Bachman's Warbler: A Species in Peril. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Hamel, P. B. (1988a) Bachman’s Warbler: still a mystery. World Birdwatch 10(3-4): 9.
Hamel, P. B. (1988b). Bachman’s Warbler. In W.J. Cadler, ed., Audubon Wildlife Report 1988/1999. National Audubon Society and Academic Press, pp. 624-635.
Hamel, P. B. (1995). Bachman's Warbler (Vermivora bachmani). In: Poole, A.; Gill, F. (ed.), The birds of North America, No. 150, pp. 1-16. The Academy of Natural Sciences, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.
Hamel, P.B. (2011) Bachman’s Warbler (Vermivora bachmanii), version 2.0. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY.
Hamel, Paul B. (2018). Bachman's Warbler: A Species in Peril, 2nd edition. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. 110 pp.
Hamel, P. B. and Galthreaux, S. A. (1982). The field identification of Bachman's Warbler. Am. Birds 36: 235-240.
Hamel, P. B. and Hooper, R. G. (1974). A Cooperative Study to Determine the Status of Bachman’s warbler on the Francis Marion National Forest in South Carolina. Study Plan, FS-SE-1951-1, November 26, 1974.
Hamel, P.B. and Hooper, R. G. (1976). Nesting Habitat of Bachman’s Warbler – A Review. U.S.D.A., Forest Service, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station, Clemson, South Carolina. Unpublished.
Hamel, P. B. and Hooper, R. G. (1979a). Bachman’s Warbler-The Most Critically Endangered. Proc. S. C. Endangered Species Symp. 1976: 164-168.
Hamel, P.B. and Hooper. (1979b). The Status of Bachman’s Warbler, A Progress Report. Proc. Rare and Endangered Wildl. Symp., Athens, Ga.: 112-121.
Hamel, P.B., R.G. Hooper, D.F. Urbston, and A. McDonald. 1977. Bachman’s warbler Breeding Habitat – A Hypothesis. 95th Meeting of American Ornithologists’ Union, Berkeley, CA, 25 August 1977.
Hooper, R.G. and Hamel, P. B. (1977). Nesting Habitat of Bachman’s warbler – A Review. Wilson Bulletin 89:373-379.
Howell, A. H. 1911. Birds of Arkansas. Biological Survey Bulletin no. 38, Washington, D.C.
Knox, Alan G. and Walters, Michael P. (1994). Extinct and endangered birds in the collections of The Natural History Museum. British Ornithologists' Club Occasional Publications 1: 1-292. [pp. 236-237]
Mackenzie, John P. S. (1977). Birds in Peril: A Guide to the Endangered Birds of the United States and Canada. Toronto: Pagurian Press.
Martin, Thomas E., Bennett, Gareth C., Fairbairn, Andrew J. and Mooers, A. Ø. (2023). ‘Lost’ taxa and their conservation implications. Animal Conservation 26(1): 14-24. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12788 [Appendix S2 (1617 taxa not seen >10 years); Appendix S3 (562 taxa not seen >50 years)]
Meanly, B. (1950). Bachman’s Warbler—Our Rarest Passerine Bird. Atlantic Nat. 6: 10-13.
Mittermeier, John C. et al. (2022). Fantastic lost birds and how you can help find them: an updated gap analysis for the Neotropical avifauna. Neotropical Birding 31: 25-32.
Pacheco, Nils Navarro. (2018). Annotated checklist of the birds of Cuba. Ediciones Nuevos Mundos.
Rehn, James A. G. (1905). Bachman's Warbler in Leon County, Florida. The Auk 22(1): 85.
Remsen, J. V. (1986). Was Bachman’s Warbler a bamboo specialist? The Auk 103: 216-219.
Ripley, S. D. and Moreno, A. (1980). A recent sighting of Bachman's Warbler in Cuba. Birding 12: 211-212.
Robbins, Mark B. (2018). The Status and Distribution of Birds in Missouri. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute. viii + 332 pp.
Roberts, D. L. and Jarić, I. (2016). Inferring extinction in North American and Hawaiian birds in the presence of sighting uncertainty. PeerJ 4: e2426.
Scheffers, Brett R., Yong, Ding Li, Harris, J. Berton C., Giam, Xingli and Sodhi, Navjot S. (2011). The world’s rediscovered species: back from the brink? PLoS ONE 6(7): e22531. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0022531 [Supporting Information (Table S1)]
Scott, Peter (ed.). (1965). Preliminary List of Rare Mammals and Birds, pp. 155-237. In: The Launching of a New Ark. First Report of the President and Trustees of the World Wildlife Fund. An International Foundation for saving the world's wildlife and wild places 1961-1964. London: Collins.
Sisson, P. (2015) Bachman’s Warbler (Vermivora bachmanii) 5-Year Review: Summary and Evaluation. Technical report, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Shuler, J. (1976) Three recent sight records of Bachman’s warbler. Chat, 41, 11–12.
Shuler, J. 1977. Bachman’s Warbler Habitat. The Chat 42: 23-24.
Shuler, J., P. Nugent, J. Trochet, and Van Os, J. (1978). Bachman's Warbler sightings continue in I'On Swamp. Chat 42: 23-24.
Sprunt, A. (1954). Florida bird life. New York. 531 pp. [breeding in South Carolina]
Stevenson, Henry M. (1972). The recent history of Bachman's Warbler. Wilson Bulletin 84(3): 344-347.
Taylor, J.W. 1972. Bachman’s Warbler, America’s Rarest Songbird. The Florida Naturalist. April 1972.
Tyrberg, Tommy. (2009). Holocene avian extinctions, pp. 63-106. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.
Watson, Craig and Koches, Jennifer. (2002?). A Survey for Bachman’s warbler (Vermivora bachmanii) in the Congaree Swamp National Monument, South Carolina April/March 2002. [incomplete citation]
Widmann, O. 1897. The summer home of the Bachman’s Warbler no longer unknown. The Auk 14: 305-310.
Widmann, O. 1907. A preliminary catalog of the birds of Missouri. Academy of Science, St. Louis.
Wood, Andrew W., Szpiech, Zachary A., Lovette, Irby J., Smith, Brian Tilston and Toews, David P. L. (In Press, 2023). Genomes of the extinct Bachman’s warbler show high divergence and no evidence of admixture with other extant Vermivora warblers. Current Biology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.05.058
Woodruff, E. S. (1907). Some interesting records from southern Missouri. The Auk 24: 348-349.
https://www.savannahnow.com/entertainmentlife/20200419/natural-georgia-local-biologist-shares-experience-with-now-extinct-bachmans-warbler