The Wonders of God’s Creation
Warblers are well named, defined by the dictionary as “birds that sing with trills,” meaning their songs have a great run of notes going up and down so quickly that it almost sounds as if their beaks were trembling.
There are about 125 varieties of warblers. Most of them spend the short summer months in North America and the rest of the year in Central and South America and a few other tropical areas. They are small birds, about the size of a sparrow. All have cheerful warblings (although their melodies are not all the same) and are very active, but there is a great variety of pretty colors among them, including some red, some yellow, blue, greenish-gray, yellow-green, orange, etc.
Warblers are a real help to mankind in eating caterpillars, moths, plant lice and other insects that are harmful to growing crops and flowers. Farmers are understandably pleased when these birds nest nearby.
Their food is obtained in a variety of ways, and the bills of each have been designed by the Creator to best serve each of them. For instance, the long, slender bill of the blue-winged variety easily penetrates buds and flowers for insects that are otherwise hard to get at. The American redstart has a flat bill which helps it capture insects flying through the air, etc. Each kind of warbler’s bill, legs, feet and wings are designed in ways which only the Creator could do for its individual pattern of life. Many find insects in foliage while walking on the ground; others find them while flying and some, like the black-and-white species, hunt their prey on tree trunks and branches, the strong claws on their feet holding them on the side of the tree.
Nests are mostly cup-shaped in trees or shrubs, but a few build them on the ground or in rocky areas. The females construct the nests, in which they usually lay four eggs, incubating them for nearly two weeks. When the little ones are hatched, both parents feed them for another two or three weeks before their feathers are developed and they are able to fly away on their own.
These cheerful birds, with their great variety of songs, would surely thank God for His goodness if they were able to, and perhaps David the psalmist was thinking of this when he declared: “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.” Psalms 150:66Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. (Psalm 150:6). But he knew birds could not do this with their voices and added in the same verse, “Praise ye the Lord.”
We surely should praise Him for His wonderful works and His goodness in dying on Calvary’s cross for the sins of everyone who will accept Him as his personal Saviour. Have you thanked Him for that work of love?
ML-05/22/1988