[501] BIRDSOFOREGON 



Audubon's Warbler: 



Dendroica auduboni auduboni (Townsend) 



DESCRIPTION. "Adult male in spring and summer: Throat ', crown patch, and rump yellow; 

 under parts white, yellow, and solid black; upper parts bluish gray, streaked with 

 black; wing coverts with large white patches; tail black, inner webs of four or five 

 outer feathers with large submarginal patch of white. Adult female in spring and 

 summer: like summer male, but duller, and with less black on under parts; upper 

 parts usually more or less tinged with brown; yellow crown patch restricted, and 

 partly tipped with brownish gray; wings with narrower bands; chest and sides 

 grayish, marked with black; color patches restricted. Adult male in fall and winter: 

 duller and browner than summer male, upper parts washed with brown, wing mark- 

 ings tinged with brown; black of chest and sides mostly concealed by brownish 

 white edges to feathers. Adult female in jail and winter: like winter male, but smaller 

 and duller, back without sharply defined streaks; yellow patches paler and more 

 restricted; black chest spots more sharply defined. Young, first plumage: upper parts 

 thickly streaked with dusky on brownish gray ground; lower rump grayish white, 

 narrowly streaked with dusky; under parts grayish white, streaked. Male: length 

 (skins) 4.80-5.39, wing 1.95-3.19, tail 1.09-1.41, bill .39-. 43. Female: length 

 (skins) 4.80-5.08, wing 1.87-3.07, tail 1.13-1.31, bill .39-. 43." (Bailey) Nest: In 

 trees and bushes, usually within a few feet of the ground, a compact cup of strips of 

 bark and pine needles, lined with rootlets, hair, and feathers. Eggs: 3 or 4, olive 

 white, sparingly spotted with black and brown (Plate 85, A). 

 DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from central British Columbia, Alberta, and Sas- 

 katchewan south to mountains of southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and 

 Black Hills. Winters from Oregon and Rio Grande to Central America. In Oregon: 

 Permanent resident that has been noted in every county during summer and through- 

 out western Oregon in winter. 



AUDUBON'S WARBLER is one of the abundant birds of Oregon. Bendire 

 (1877) published the first State record when he stated it was common 

 and breeding at Camp Harney. Many subsequent writers have referred 

 to it from places well distributed over the State until the species has now 

 been recorded, either in literature or in our own notes, for every county. 

 It is a regular summer resident in the mountains as well as in the western 

 valleys. Its little song is heard on every side during May and June, and 

 its peculiarly distinct call or alarm note is a familiar sound throughout 

 the balance of the year. This is true not only of the wooded slopes and 

 bottoms but equally so of the weedy fence rows of the Willamette Valley, 

 where during the short days of fall and winter these warblers may be 

 found associating with the Golden-crowned Sparrow and Willow Gold- 

 finches or sitting on the telephone wires with the Western Bluebirds. In 

 mid-March the arrival of the individuals that wintered farther south 

 greatly swells the population, and the species becomes one of the really 

 abundant birds, remaining so through April and into early May, when 

 the migrant population disappears to the north, leaving only resident 

 birds until late August. At that time the birds travel southward, and 

 during September and October they again swarm over the landscape, until 

 by the last of October they are reduced in numbers to the wintering 



