Wow - yes, it looks like a hybrid.

The two most notable features are the extremely bold eye ring and the ragged black chin and throat, but there are other features to look at too.

The Jon Dunn / Kimball Garrett guide, "Warblers", from Peterson Field Guides, has an excellent illustration of the undersides of warbler tails (plates 31 and 32). The Queen Anne bird has yellow undertail coverts all the way to the tip, with short, dark tail feathers. This is very well shown in several of Collin's photos. This kind of tail is found only the four Oporornis warblers - Kentucky, Connecticut, Mourning, and MacGillivray's Warblers. The tails of the first two match the QA bird the best

The extremely bold eye ring looks very much like that of Connecticut Warbler. However, with hybrids, I think it's possible for the complexities of gene expression to hide or show field marks in unpredictable fashions. The four Oporornois warblers have very different eye treatments, from the boldest of bold eye rings in Connecticut, to distincly broken in MacGillivray's, to essentially absent in Mourning. Kentucky seems to have an eye ring hidden behind other features. Even Mourning Warblers show bold eyerings in some plumages, though. All four species may carry the genes necessary for a Connecticut-like ring.

Other features pointing to Oporornis is the heavy bill, and the hooding (which is shared by all but Kentucky). I think it's safe to say that one parent was an Oporornis warbler. Superficially by appearance, Connecticut looks most likely of the four.


The parentage on the other side is less certain. My feeling is that the combination of the black chin and the whitish belly are significant. Wouldn't a hybrid between a Oporornis and, say, a Wilsonia (Wilson's, Hooded, Canada) be likely to have an all-yellow belly, since both parents would have had all yellow bellies? So I'm leaning towards the "Black-throated" Dendroica warblers, and specifically, the Black-throated Green, Golden-cheeked, Townsend's, Hermit, and Black-throated Gray Warblers. I really have no argments for or against any of these specifically.

So my best guess would be to try picking likely pairs of Oporornis x Dendroica, based on habitat, that might produce the QA bird.

Since the bird was found in Seattle, a MacGillivray's x Townsend's or MacGillivrays x Black-throated Gray would seem most likely. From appearance, though, I might go for Connecticut x Black-throated Green or somesuch.

Cool bird.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland, WA
== http://www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
== http://www.marymoor.org/BirdBlog.htm
== birdmarymoor at verizon.net

----- Original Message -----
From: Collin Vassallo
To: Tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2009 2:52 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Queen Anne birding and a myster warbler!






----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Collin Vassallo <tweeters92 at yahoo.com>
To: Tweeters <tweeters-request at mailman2.u.washington.edu>
Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2009 2:45:39 PM
Subject: Queen Anne birding and a myster warbler!


Today my friend Sam Riley and I went birding around my house on Queen Anne. We spoted 2 WARBLING VIREOS, 10 EVENING GROSBEAKS, WILSON'S , YELLOW , TOWNSEND'S, and ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER. Plus an extremely weird looking warbler, probably a hybrid of some sort. I don't even know where to begin describing it, so please check out my photos. We observed it for 20 minutes right by Parson's Garden.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9654794 at N06/

Collin Vassallo
Queen Anne
norrisbigelow at yahoo.com








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