In my experience, in the portion of Washington that has Townsend's, Hermit,
and hybrids, they will all sing and respond to any variation of their
collective songs. If you play a typical Townsend's song at a Hermit that
was singing a typical Hermit song, the Hermit Warbler will come in and sing
a Townsend's song back at you. And vice versa. Black-throated Grays will
also get into the mix, singing songs closer to Townsend's/Hermit in the
Hermit zone.
So I would never try to use voice to distinguish TOWA, HEWA, and TOxHE in
the Hermit Warbler range in Washington.
= Michael Hobbs
On Mon, May 22, 2023 at 9:41 AM Jason Zolle <
zollejd at gmail.com> wrote:
>
Hi tweets,
>
>
I am wondering if anyone is aware of any resources or has any useful
>
information they can share related to distinguishing Townsend's and Hermit
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Warblers by song (1) from each other and (2) from hybrids.
>
>
To the first, I have read the relevant sections of The Warbler Guide,
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looked at many sonograms, listened to numerous recordings, and while I feel
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like I have a handle on identifying some songs by ear, I still am not
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nearly as comfortable as I would like here, and would love some suggestions
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to improve.
>
>
To the second, we birded Saturday north of Packwood in an apparent hybrid
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area and the majority of TOWA/HEWA songs we heard had me throwing up my
>
hands in confusion. I suspect that may have been because many were
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abnormal songs of hybrids -- of the 8 birds we called in for visual
>
identification, 4 were phenotypically pure Townsend's and 4 were hybrids (3
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of those 4 being almost pure Hermit). I found a 1995 British Columbia
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birding article online that cites a 1983 article (which I cannot find) to
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the effect of "hybrids in Oregon sing like Hermit Warblers, and hybrids in
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Washington sing like Townsend's Warblers." That seems a bit simplistic and
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I am hoping to get more information if possible on what to listen for (or
>
look for in a spectogram) so I can more confidently identify these birds by
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ear without feeling the need to call each one in for a visual inspection.
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I also am wondering if anyone knows whether pure Townsend's sing abnormal
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songs in a hybrid zone, perhaps because they are learning from their dad's
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hybrid neighbors.
>
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I have thought that Merlin sound ID, which of course isn't perfect but
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often does a good job at seeing things in spectograms that are not readily
>
apparent to the ear, would have been helpful in this task, but particularly
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in the hybrid zone it seemed to be equally confused, often showing both
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Hermit and Townsend's simultaneously or switching between the two. (And if
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it did show one bird only, that bird was almost always Hermit, which was a
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bummer because not a single bird we saw visually appeared as a pure
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Hermit). This leads me to think that maybe the songs do have elements of
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both that the AI is picking up on. I just would love to know exactly what
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it is seeing in the spectograms to make the call.
>
>
Thank you!
>
Jason
>
Olympia, WA
>
>
>
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