Townsend’s Warbler

I was thrilled to be seing warblers so early in March, until I remembered that Townsend’s Warblers can be seen along the west coast during the cold months.

This didn’t detract from the pleasure of finding one of North America’s most strikingly marked wablers. A quick search in the archives here at 10,000 Birds found no mention of this beauty. It was almost as if the species had been forgotten.

After the warblerfest of last May, it is possible that The Management will find a new direction to point the beat writers during the peak of this year’s migration, so as the anticipation rises, here’s one before he moves inland to breed.

This individual was seen  during a recent visit to San Francisco while I was looking for a Great Horned Owl’s nest in Golden Gate Park. All the birds seen today were males. If the females had shown, they would have been similarly marked but less vividly than the highly contrasting patterns of the males. The black facial patterns of the males are replaced with olive in the female and the streaks on the backs of the males are absent on the green backs of the females.

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