Verification of Unusual
Sight Record
For Utah
Rec. # 2003-38
| Common name: |
Hermit Warbler |
| Scientific name: | Dendroica occidentalis |
| Date: | 8-25-03 |
| Time: | 1825 |
| Length of time observed: | 5 min. |
| Number: | 1 |
| Age: | first year |
| Sex: | female ? |
| Location: | Lava Point, Zion National Park |
| County: | Washington |
| Latilong: | 19 |
| Elevation: | 3385 m |
| Distance to bird: | 5-10 m |
| Optical equipment: | Leica 10 x 42 binoculars |
| Weather: | overcast and calm |
| Light Conditions: | somewhat bright, but diffused light |
| Detailed description of bird: |
A typically sized warbler with a yellow head,white wingbars, brownish back, and
pale underparts.
Head relatively plain with indistinct pattern, overall dull olive yellow with a prominent dark eye and wide complete but diffuse yellow eye-ring. Indistinct brownish yellow crown and cheek patch extending from base of bill, below and behind the eye into auricular area. Throat yellowish / white, but paler than the rest of head and face. Bill black. Underparts pale. Breast and belly grayish white, flanks buffy grayish, brightest white at undertail coverts. Upperparts: back gray/brown. Wings with two bright distinct wingbars. Tail dark with white outer tail feathers visible in flight. Undertail pattern
white with thin dark lateral edges. |
| Song or call & method of delivery: | none heard |
| Behavior: | flitting around and foraging between 3 and 20 feet high, primarilly in spruce trees, |
| Habitat: | primarilly Spruce-Fir forest with some ponderosa and aspen interspersed. |
| Similar
species and
how were they eliminated: |
My primary focus was eliminating a Townsend's X Hermit hybrid, and I believe
this is a clean Hermit, due to the lack of yellow extending through throat and down onto breast and the lack of streaks on the sides. Other characters (buffy flanks, brownish rather than green back) also tend to rule out a "HETO" warbler. |
| Previous
experience with this & similar species: |
This is my second Hermit Warbler in Washington County, however I've seen them several times elsewhere. Familar with more regularly occuring warblers. |
| References consulted: | I looked for Hermit X Townsend's hybrid descriptions in Dunn and Garrett 1997 (Warblers), Curson, Quinn, and Beadle 1994 (Warblers of the Americas), and Eckert 2001 (Hermit/Townsend's Hybrids, Birding 35(4)). |
| Description from: | Notes taken at time of sighting |
| Observer: | Rick Fridell |
| Observer's address: | 3505 West 290 North, Hurricane, UT |
| Observer's e-mail address: | rfridell@redrock.net |
| Other observers who independently identified this bird: | |
| Date prepared: | 10-01-03 (General Public) |
| Additional material: | Photos |
| Additional comments: | Material is from notes taken immediately following sighting. Photographs with a Camedia digital camera. |