Warbler WESTERN BIRDS 



GENUS DENDROICA: TOWNSEND'S 

 WARBLER. 



Townsend's Warbler: Dendroica townsendi. 



FAMILY— WOOD WARBLERS. 



Townsend's Warbler is a westerner which breeds 

 from Alaska south to Washington and east to western 

 Montana, in migration going to eastern Wyoming, Colo- 

 rado, and western Texas; wintering from central Cali- 

 fornia, south. 



The eastern Warbler which it most nearly resembles 

 is the Blackburnian. The bird in the west which has a 

 very similar plumage pattern is the Black-throated Gray 

 and if seen in a picture they are quite similar. Really, 

 however, they are not at all alike, since the white on 

 head and breast of the Black-throated is replaced in 

 townsendi by a deep orange-yellow. The back of the 

 latter is also greenish with black markings instead of 

 gray; two white wing bars and the white on tail are 

 similar in both birds; throats black. The female re- 

 sembles the male in his winter attire, in which the black 

 is obscured with olive-green shadings and the throat is 

 lemon-yellow. The young are similar but with less 

 black on head and sides. 



In southern California these birds are seen most fre- 

 quently as spring migrants, where they forage in the 

 trees with other passing Warblers, fly down on to the 

 ground, even fluttering over plowed fields in search of 

 insect life. Like others of their tribe they are unmind- 

 ful of human inspection at this time. 



Dawson tells us that the birds that nest in Washing- 

 ton build rather bulky structures, chiefly of cedar bark 

 with a few slender fir twigs interwoven, lined with stems 

 of moss flowers and placed at a modest height in young 



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