[Tweeters] Townsend's Warbler _Details_

[Robert O'Brien]

Here is a post I sent to ID frontiers early last spring
Would be interested in any comments, ideas, etc.
Following will be an email with all the discussion.  If uninterested in
these details, just delete without opening.
Thanks for any comments, on or offline.
Bob OBrien   Portland

To: ID Frontiers

I'm curious about the 'crown stripe' on this Townsend's Warbler
photographed 03/21/2021 in Newport OR.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/159695762@N07/51092453251/in/dateposted-public/

Must be a wintering bird as likely too early for a migrant.

Some years ago Townsends wintering in Oregon were assigned as breeders from
the Queen Charlotte Islands, BC
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1367976?seq=1
I also wonder about the current acceptance of this distribution.

A detailed discussion of ageing of Townsend's and Hermit Warblers is here
https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/condor/v094n02/p0490-p0501.pdf
If I am reading Table 2 correctly,  no stage  of Townsend's plumage should
show yellow in the crown (Score = 8 in Table 2), but maybe I misinterpret.
I find few if any such birds in the Macaulay Library, but I did not check
exhaustively.

Would this make it a Hermit Warbler intergrade?    There doesn't seem to be
much else to indicate Hermit Warbler?  Is it a transitional molt stage?
Hopefully Mr. Pyle might comment?  Thanks to all for any assistance.

Bob OBrien  Portland OR
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