Mystery Bird: Townsend's Warbler, Dendroica townsendi

tags: Townsend's Warbler, Dendroica townsendi, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz

Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.

Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:

A diminutive, brightly colored bird makes us think of a wood warbler, and the black throat and crown point us in the direction of the "throated" Dendroica. The extensive yellow on the face and underparts rules out Black-throated Gray, and the nearly solid-black auriculars take Black-throated Green and Golden-cheeked out of the running.

Hermit and Townsend's Warblers in their classic field-guide plumages are easy to distinguish. The quiz bird's dark crown, greenish mantle, heavily streaked flanks, yellow lower breast, and black ear patch are all typical of an adult male Townsend's Warbler, and each of those characters rules out a male Hermit Warbler, too.

The only possible complication is the apparent frequency of hybridization between those two western species. Apparent hybrids combining features of both species can be detected in the field, but how many birds produced by miscegenation come out looking exactly like one or the other parent species? It's an unanswerable question, I suppose, but one that should keep us looking closely at throated warblers, even such birds as this Townsend's Warbler.

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