Hello Tweets,

My mother and I had our photographs developed of the Yellow-throated Warbler
at Twisp, which came out excellent, and as noted and mentioned in the field
this particular individual appears to be the white-lored subspecies(which is
the normal western race of this Mid-Atlantic subspecies)of which the
nominate race or yellow-lored subspecies is distinguished by the lore color
in front of the eye, and at the base of the bill. The yellow-lored
subspecies is the confined more to the southeastern US, then the white-lored
subspecies, with two additional isolated subspecies, being the Florida
subspecies(stoddardi), and the Bahamas subspecies limited to only a few
islands in the Bahamas, which are both distinguished by a few subtle
characteristics, away from the nominant southeastern US, yellow-lored
subspecies. The white-lored subspecies is the more expected subspecies to be
encountered in the western US in migration, with a few winter records for
California, but it is possible to encounter the much rarer yellow-lored
subspecies, of which California has a few of it's 30+ records of in past
years. Oregon has a few records of this species, which probably are of the
white-lored subspeces too, but both listed states have records from birds in
spring and fall migration. The thinner-billed,white-lored subspecies unlike
the dominant larger,longer billed, yellow-lored subspecies can on occasion
show a slight tinge of yellow to the lores, which the bird in Twisp seemed
to show at a very close range of viewing, but white was far more consistant
behind the base of the upper mandible to the eye. The white-lored subspecies
breeds as far west as the Edwards Plateau in eastcentral Texas, but this
subspecies is apparently expanding it's northern and eastern breeding
range. An actual photograph was made by a reporter of the local Methow
Valley News paper in Twisp at Richard Murray's residence, and an article
written about this first WA record, which also clearly shows this species to
be of the white-lored subspecies, which may or may have not been mentioned
by other observers that observed this particular bird. An article was also
written in Seattle P-I by Jane Hadley, as previously mentioned and shows a
picture of the yellow-lored subspecies, which is clearly NOT the same
individual bird that is in Twisp, but from another source.

Sources:

Rare Birds of the West Coast by Don Roberson, copyright 1980
California Birds by Arnold Small, copyright 1994
Peterson Field Guides "Warblers" by Jon Dunn and Kimball Garrett, copyright
1997


Sincerely,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net