Part 72

Winter range.--Little is known of the golden-cheeked warbler in winter. At that season it has been found at Teziutlán, western Veracruz; Tactic, central Guatemala; and Matagalpa, central northern Nicaragua. On November 23, 1939, and January 8, 1940, a male was observed on the island of St. Croix, Virgin Islands. It has been observed in Tamaulipas and Nuevo León in March, probably on migration.

Migration.--The golden-cheeked warbler is an early migrant both in spring and fall. It has arrived at Kerrville, Tex., as early as March 5, and the majority of the birds have left by the middle of July; latest, Ingram, August 18.

Egg dates.--Texas: 29 records, April 1 to June 27; 10 records, April 11 to 24; 10 records, May 18 to 28 (Harris).

DENDROICA OCCIDENTALIS (Townsend)

HERMIT WARBLER

PLATE 39

HABITS

This well-marked wood warbler lives in summer in the high coniferous forests of the west, from British Columbia southward to the southern Sierra Nevadas in California, and spends the winter in Mexico and Central America. This is another of those species discovered by J. K. Townsend along the Columbia River, of which he wrote to Audubon (1841): "I shot this pair of birds near Fort Vancouver, on the 28th of May, 1835. I found them flitting among the pine trees in the depth of a forest. They were actively engaged in searching for insects, and were frequently seen hanging from the twigs like Titmice. Their note was uttered at distant intervals, and resembled very much that of the Black-throated Blue Warbler, Sylvia canadensis."

In northwestern Washington the hermit warbler is not common and is decidedly local in its summer haunts, being regularly found in certain favored regions and entirely absent in other somewhat similar localities. It is partial to a certain type of coniferous forest, and when one learns to recognize the proper environment he is quite likely to find it. D. E. Drown and S. F. Rathbun showed me some typical haunts of this warbler near Tacoma, where J. H. Bowles has found it nesting. This is level land covered with a more or less open growth of firs and cedars, the largest trees, giant Douglas firs, are somewhat scattered and tower above the rest of the forest, some reaching a height of 200 feet or more. As the warblers spend most of their time in the tops of these great trees and are very active, it is difficult to identify them even with a good glass, and still more difficult to follow them to their nests.

Chester Barlow (1901) says that in the central Sierra Nevada, in California, "the hermit warbler is pre-eminently a frequenter of the conifers, although it feeds in the bushes and black oaks in common with other species." In the Yosemite region, according to Grinnell and Storer (1924), "the Hermit Warbler is a bird of the coniferous forests at middle altitudes. Pines and firs afford it suitable forage range and safe nesting sites. The birds keep fairly well up in the trees, most often at 20 to 50 feet from the ground. The Hermit may thus be found in close association with the Audubon Warbler, although the latter ranges to a much greater altitude in the mountains."

Spring.--Dr. Chapman (1907), outlining the migration of the hermit warbler, says that it "enters the United States in April being reported from Oracle, Arizona, April 12, 1899, and the Huachuca Mountains, Arizona, April 9, 1902. Records of the earliest birds seen in California are Campo, April 27, 1877, and Julian, April 25, 1884. A Hermit Warbler was noted at Burrard Inlet, British Columbia, April 20, 1885." Swarth (1904) says that the first arrivals in the Huachucas "appeared in the very highest parts of the mountains, but a little later they could be found in all parts of the range, and on April 17, 1902, I saw a few in some willows near the San Pedro River." Mrs. Amelia S. Allen's notes from the San Francisco Bay region, give dates of arrival from April 24 to May 10. In northwestern Washington, according to Bowles (1906), "the hermits make their first appearance early in May and the fact is only to be known thru their notes; for they frequent the tops of the giant firs which cover large sections of our flat prairie country."

Nesting.--The first undoubted nests of the hermit warbler were found by C. A. Allen in Blue Cañon, California, two in 1886 and one about eight years previously, about which he wrote to William Brewster (1887): "All three nests were similarly placed;--in 'pitch pines,' from twenty-five to forty feet above the ground, on thick, scraggy limbs, where they were so well concealed that it would have been impossible to find them except by watching the birds, as was done in each instance." One of these nests held two eggs on June 4, but they were destroyed before they could be collected; the other two nests contained three young each. One of the nests with three young was sent to Brewster, who writes:

The nest with young, taken June 7, 1886, is now before me. It is composed of the fibrous stalks of herbaceous plants, fine dead twigs, lichens (Evernia vulpina), and a little cotton twine, and is lined with soft inner bark of some coniferous tree and fine long hairs, apparently from the tail of a squirrel. The bright, yellow Evernia, sprinkled rather plentifully about the rim, gives a touch of color to the otherwise cold, gray tone of the exterior and contrasts agreeably with the warm, reddish-brown lining. Although the materials are coarse and wadded, rather than woven, together, the general effect of this nest is neat and tasteful. It does not resemble any other Warbler's nest that I have seen, but rather recalls the nest of some Fringilline bird, being perhaps most like that of the Lark Finch. It measures externally 4.50 inches in width by 2 inches in depth. The cavity is 1.25 inches deep by 2.50 inches wide at the top. The walls at the rim average nearly an inch in thickness.

Chester Barlow (1901), who has had considerable experience with the nesting of the hermit warbler in the central Sierra Nevada, refers to the records up to that time as follows:

On June 10, 1896, Mr. R. H. Beck collected a nest and four eggs from a limb of a yellow pine 40 feet up, near the American River at 3,500 feet altitude. The nest was reached by means of a ladder carried a long distance up the mountain. (See Nidologist, IV, p. 79). On June 14, 1898, I had the good fortune to discover a nest opposite the station at Fyffe, it being built at the end of a small limb of a yellow pine 45 feet up. The nest was located by searching at random and contained four eggs about one-fourth incubated. This nest was described at length in The Auk (XVI, pp. 156-161.) * * * While walking through the timber at Fyffe on June 8, 1899, Mr. H. W. Carriger came upon a nest of this species but 2-1/2 feet up in a cedar sapling. It contained four eggs, advanced in incubation. (See CONDOR I, pp. 59-60). A nest containing young about four days old found by Mr. Price's assistant at Fyffe on June 11, 1897, was placed twelve feet up near the top of a small cedar, next to the trunk and well concealed. Thus it is probable that Fyffe has afforded more nesting records of this species than has any other part of the state.

Of the nest described in The Auk, Barlow (1899) says:

The nest was 45 feet from the ground in a yellow pine, built four feet from the trunk of the tree on an upcurved limb 18 inches from the end. * * * The nest is not fastened to the limb, resting merely upon the limb and pine needles and is wider at the bottom than at the top, its base measuring four inches one way and three inches the other. It is very prettily constructed, the bottom layer being of light grayish weed stems, bleached pine needles and other light materials held securely together by cobwebs and wooly substances. The nest cavity is lined with strips of red cedar bark (Libocedrus) and the ends, instead of being woven smoothly, project out of the nest. The inner lining is of a fine brownish fiber resembling shreds of soap-root. The composition of the nest gives it a very pretty effect.

J. H. Bowles (1906) found a nest in northwestern Washington on June 11, 1905, "in a grove of young hundred-foot firs near a small swamp." The female sat so close that he was obliged to lift her from the nest with his hand--

and she then flew only a few feet where she remained chipping and spreading her wings and tail. * * * The nest was placed twenty feet from the ground in a young fir, and was securely saddled on a good sized limb at a distance of six feet from the trunk of the tree. It is a compact structure composed externally of small dead fir twigs, various kinds of dry moss, and down from the cottonwood flowers, showing a strong outward resemblance to nests of D. auduboni. But here the likeness between the two is at an end; for the lining consists of fine dried grasses, and horsehair, with only a single feather from the wing of a western bluebird. The measurements are, externally, four inches in diameter and two and three-quarters inches deep; internally, two inches in diameter by one and a quarter inches deep.

A nest in the Thayer collection in Cambridge was collected by O. W. Howard "70 feet above ground, near the end of a limb of a yellow pine, in a bunch of needles," in Tulare County, Calif. Gordon W. Gullion tells me of an Oregon nest that was "about 125 feet above the ground."

Eggs.--The hermit warbler lays 3, 4, or 5 eggs to a set; 5 are apparently not rare. Bowles (1906) says of his 5 eggs: "They have a rather dull white ground with the slightest suggestion of flesh color, heavily blotched and spotted with varying shades of red, brown and lavender. * * * I think they may be considered the handsomest of all the warblers' eggs." The 4 eggs in the Thayer collection in Cambridge are ovate, with a very slight lustre. They are creamy white, finely speckled and spotted with "chestnut" and "auburn," with intermingling spots of "light brownish drab." The markings are concentrated at the large end, forming a broad, loose wreath. The measurements of 50 eggs average 17.0 by 13.1 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =18.0= by 13.4, 17.0 by =13.7=, =15.2= by 12.7, and 16.3 by =11.8= millimeters (Harris).

Young.--We have no information on the incubation of the eggs, nor on the care and development of the young.

Plumages.--I have examined the nestlings sent to Brewster by C. A. Allen; they are about two-thirds fledged on the body and wings; the heads still show the long natal down, "hair brown" in color; the feathers of the back are "olive brown"; the wings are "clove brown," with two narrow, white wing bars, faintly tinged with pale yellow; the breasts and sides are pale "hair brown" to "light grayish olive"; and the rest of the under parts are yellowish white. A young bird in fresh plumage, collected July 1, is probably in full juvenal plumage; its body plumage is similar to that of the nestlings, but there is some yellow on the forehead and throat, and the sides of the head and neck are decidedly yellow; however, this may be a bird that has assumed its first winter plumage at an unusually early date.

In first winter plumage, young birds of both sexes are much like the adult female at that season, mainly grayish olive-green above, with black streaks concealed or absent; forehead, sides of the head, and chin pale yellow; and the rest of the under parts buffy white, the sides browner. The broad, white tips of the lesser wing coverts have a black shaft streak or wedge, apparently characteristic of this plumage. There is probably a prenuptial molt involving much of the head and body plumage and the wing coverts, but the dull juvenal wings are retained until the next molt.

The complete postnuptial molt occurs in July and August. The fall plumages of both sexes are like the spring plumages, but the clear blacks and yellows are largely concealed by olive above and by buffy below.

Food.--The only item I can find on the food of the hermit warbler is the following short statement by Bowles (1906): "Their food consists of small spiders, caterpillars, tiny beetles, and flying insects which they dart out and capture in a manner worthy of that peer of flycatchers the Audubon warbler."

Behavior.--The most marked trait of the hermit warbler is its fondness for the tree tops, spending much of its time in the tops of the tallest firs, often 200 feet or more above the ground, where it is very active and not easy to follow. But it builds its nest at lower levels, and often comes down to forage in the lower branches, in smaller trees and even in the underbrush, where it is not particularly shy and can be easily approached. It is a close sitter while incubating; Bowles had to lift one off its nest.

A hermit warbler watched by Miss Margaret W. Wythe, in Yosemite Valley, "was foraging in the upper parts of the trees and never came to the lower branches. Starting from near the trunk of a pine it would work out to the tip of one branch before going to another. Its demeanor while foraging was much more deliberate than that of any of the other warblers" (Grinnell and Storer, 1924).