In a paper published in the June 16 issue of Science, researchers T. Scott Sillett and Richard T. Holmes, both of Dartmouth College, and Thomas W. Sherry, of Tulane University, analyzed 13 years of data on the black-throated blue warbler, a migratory songbird. The black-throated blue warbler is a member of the group of birds known as Neotropical migrants. These species breed in North America and spend the winter in Latin America and the Caribbean. In recent years scientists have become alarmed by population declines in many Neotropical migrant species.
Most birds breeding in North American forests during the summer are Neotropical migrants.
Sherry is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Tulane.