Greetings Gene


Your bird may well be a hybrid of some sort, but as warbler songs are learned (at least in part), this individual may have been raised near a singing Nashville Warbler (or other species) and picked up part of its song.


I once heard an Oregon Junco in June giving a buzzy song on Whidbey Island that most resembled a Black-throated Blue Warbler. It is hard to know what caused it to sing this way, but in that case, I was able to feel pretty assured it wasn't a hybrid


Interesting, NoneTheLess


And yes... I will post any further musings on this topic to Tweeters, proper.
Steve Mlodinow





-----Original Message-----
From: Eugene and Nancy Hunn <enhunn323 at comcast.net>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu; tweeters-alerts at u.washington.edu
Sent: Sun, Jun 27, 2010 1:43 pm
Subject: [Tweeters-Alerts] strange MacGilivray's like warbler at Duvall this morning



Tweets,

For what it?s worth, Brien Meilleur, Grace and OllieOliver, and I studied a weird MacGillivray?s-like warbler this morningabout 8-9 AM on the south edge of Duvall, King County. We first heard it fromthe Snoqualmie Valley trail about ? mile south of McCormick Park in Duvall, gotbrief glimpses, then much better scope views (Ollie took some pictures) from anobscure connecting track between the trail and Highway 212 (accessible from acommercial driveway west off the highway between Kennedy Rd. and 145thdirectly opposite the Subway fanchise).

Basically it looked like a male MacGillivray?s Warblerbut with a neatly defined white throat that shades to grayish, then brightyellow on the breast. It seemed long in the tail and perhaps a bit washed outoverall for a typical adult male MacG. The bill and leg coloration andproportions were as in MacGillivray?s but the song was quite unlike anyother local warbler song, a ca. 12 note phrase on an even keel until the finalfour notes, which rose and then fell to the base pitch. We played bothMacGillivray?s and Nashville songs but it did not respond to either.

It moved around in a small area of tall wet grass perchingand singing mostly from willows and alders on the meadow margins and from a lowhawthorn bush near the track. There were singing Yellow Warblers and CommonYellowthroats keeping it company.

If it?s a hybrid we can?t imagine what the otherparent could be to provide the white throat and the weird song. If it?ssimply a retarded first-year male it shows an exceptionally well defined whitethroat and sings an unrecognizably MacGillivray?s song.

For those of you with nothing better to do than puzzle overanomalous individuals, here?s your chance. I hope to get back out torecord the song. Ollie will pass along his best photos when he gets home.

Otherwise we missed all the Stillwater/Duvall targetrarities this morning save the Least Flycatcher chebecking off and on acrossthe pond at the Stillwater middle access road trail crossing.

Gene Hunn
Lake Forest Park
enhunn323 at comcast.net


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