Subject: Re: Hermit/Townsends Warblers
Date: Mar 23 13:09:30 1995
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


>Hello tweeters:
>
>Could anyone recommend a good reference article discussing the extent of
>hybridization between Hermit and Townsend's Warblers in the zone where
>their breeding ranges overlap? Thanks.
>
> - Grant
>
>
> Grant Canterbury
> Missoula, Montana
> gcanter at selway.umt.edu

Grant, the definitive articles have yet to be written, I believe. You
could write to Chris Wood at

puffinus at u.washington.edu

and ask him the same question. He and others at the Burke Museum have been
doing extensive research on this for some years now, and they are preparing
numerous papers about it. I can tell you that the hybrid zone is best
developed in the S Cascades, south of about Mt. St. Helens, and on the E
side of the Olympics. Where they overlap hybridization is very extensive.
Hybrids almost always have the head pattern of one or the other of the
parental types, but the body coloration varies to all degrees inbetween.
You can get birds with Hermit heads and Townsend's bodies, or birds that
look like Townsend's but with no yellow on the underparts.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416