Part 73

Voice.--Rathbun (MS.) writes: "The song is quite strong, can be heard a considerable distance, and when given in full consists of five or six notes. The first note, rather faint, rises and then falls, with a slight accent at its close; if one is quite close to the singer, the note has a light lisping sound. This note is followed by another, similar but stronger and more prolonged. Then come three or four short, clear notes quickly given, the song ending with a prolonged rising one that closes sharply. Our interpretation of the song would be zweeo-zweeo-zwee-zwee-zwee-zweeck. Whenever an additional note is given, it is of the intermediate kind. One or two of these notes are, to us, suggestive of some heard in the song of Townsend's warbler. The song is quite rapidly sung in an energetic way, being very distinctive and is pleasing. It resembles the song of no other warbler in the region."

Bowles (1906) says that the song of the hermit warbler "consists of four distinct notes, as a rule, and is described as zeegle-zeegle, zeegle-zeek, uttered somewhat slowly at first but ending rather sharply." Barlow (1899) states that "though not loud it would penetrate through the woods quite a distance and very much resembled tsit, tsit, tsit, tsit, chee chee chee, the first four syllables being uttered with a gradual and uniform speed, ending quickly with the chee chee chee." Grinnell and Storer (1924) write:

The song of the male Hermit Warbler, while varying somewhat with different individuals, is sufficiently distinct from that of the other warblers of the region to make possible identification by voice alone. The song is most nearly like that of the Audubon Warbler but usually not so clear or mellow. A male bird observed at Chinquapin seemed to say seezle, seezle, seezle, seezle, zeek, zeek; just that number of syllables, over and over again. The quality was slightly droning, but not so much so as that of the Black-throated Gray Warbler. Another song, clearer in quality, heard in Yosemite Valley, was written ter´-ley, ter´-ley, ter´-ley, sic´, sic´, thus much more nearly like the song of the Audubon Warbler. Other transcriptions ranged between these two as to timbre. A rendering set down at Glacier Point June 16, 1915, was as follows: ser-weez´, ser-weez´, ser-weez´, ser´, ser´. The marked rhythm throughout, and the stressed terminal syllables, are distinctive features of the Hermit's song. The call note is a moderate chip.

Writing of warbler songs of early dawn, Dawson (Dawson and Bowles, 1909) indulges in the following flowery praise of the hermit's sing: "There is Audubon with his hastening melody of gladness. There is Black-throated Gray with his still drowsy sonnet of sweet content. Then there is Hermit hidden aloft in the shapeless greenery of the under-dawn--his note is sweetest, gladdest, most seraphic of them all, lilly, lilly, lilly, leê-oleet. It is almost sacrilege to give it form--besides it is so hopeless. The preparatory notes are like the tinkle of crystal bells, and when our attention is focused, lo! the wonder happens, the exquisite lilt of the closing phrase, leê-oleet."

Field marks.--The yellow head, the black throat, the dark back, and the white, unmarked under parts will distinguish the male in spring. The head of the female, of young birds, and of fall birds is also more or less yellowish and the back is more olivaceous. The two white wing bars are also common to several other species. Its song is said to be distinctive.

Fall.--The fall migration of the hermit warbler begins early. Bowles (1906) says that, in Washington, "about the middle of July both young and old assemble in good-sized flocks and frequent the water holes in the smaller growths of timber. At such times I have never seen them associating with any other kinds of birds." W. W. Price wrote to Mr. Barlow (1901) of the migration in the Sierra Nevada:

The adults are very rare during June and July in the neighborhood of my camp at Silver Creek, but late in July and early in August a migration of the young birds of the year takes place and the species is very abundant everywhere in the tamaracks from about 6000 to 8000 feet. A hundred or more may be counted in an hour's walk at my camp, 7000 feet, on Silver Creek. They are very silent, uttering now and then a 'cheep,' and always busy searching among the leaves and cones for insects. Among some fifty collected in the first week in August, 1896, there were only two or three adults. The young males have the most coloring, but they in no way approach adult plumage. These great flights of the hermit warbler are intermingled with other species, Hammond flycatcher, Calaveras and lutescent warblers, Cassin vireo, and sometimes Louisiana tanagers and red-brested nuthatches. Each year the flight has been noted, it comes without warning of storm or wind, and after a few days disappears to be seen no more.

In the Huachuca Mountains of Arizona, according to Swarth (1904), "they reappeared in August, but at this time were seen only in the pines above 8500 feet. It is rather singular, and in contradiction to the idea that in the migrations the old birds go first in order to show the way, that the first secured in the fall was a young female, taken August 7th. The young birds then became very abundant, and on August 14th the first adult female was taken; and not until August 19th was an adult male seen. The adults then became nearly as abundant as the juveniles, and both together were more numerous than I have ever seen them in the spring, on several occasions as many as fifteen to twenty being seen in one flock."

Winter.--Dr. Skutch writes to me: "The hermit warbler is a moderately abundant winter resident in the Guatemalan highlands, found chiefly between 5,000 and 10,000 feet above sea level, but ranging downward to about 3,500 feet on the Pacific slope and possibly somewhat lower on the Caribbean slope, where pine forests push down into the upper levels of the Tropical Zone. These treetop birds are usually found in the mixed flocks of small birds, of which Townsend's warblers form the predominant element. During the early part of their sojourn in Guatemala, I sometimes saw two, three, or more hermits in the same flock; but in February and March, there was as a rule only one. In 1933, I saw the last of these warblers on the Sierra de Tecpán on March 29, and recorded the first fall arrival on September 13, when four individuals were seen."

DISTRIBUTION

Range.--Western North America from Puget Sound to Nicaragua.

Breeding range.--The hermit warbler breeds =north= to northwestern Washington (Lake Crescent and Tacoma). =East= to the Cascades of Washington (Tacoma); Oregon (Prospect); and the Sierra Nevada in California (Meadow Valley, Pinecrest, Yosemite Valley, Taylor Meadow, and the San Bernardino Mountains). =South= to the San Bernardino Mountains and La Honda. =West= to the Pacific coast from central western California northward (La Honda, Cahto, and Garberville); western Oregon (Kerby and Tillamook); and northwestern Washington (Lake Crescent).

Winter range.--The hermit warbler has been found in winter =north= to central Mexico (Taxco, Cuernavaca, and Mexico City). =East= to Mexico City and central Guatemala (San Gerónimo and Alotepeque). =South= to southern Guatemala (Alotepeque); probably farther south since specimens have been taken at Los Esesmiles, El Salvador, and Metagalpa, Nicaragua. =West= to western Guatemala (Alotepeque, Tecpán, and Momostenango); western Oaxaca (La Parada); and northern Guerrero (Taxco).

The hermit warbler has been taken three times in January in central western California (San Gerónimo and Point Reyes, Marin County; and Pacific Grove, Monterey County).

Migration.--Late dates of spring departure from the winter home are: Guatemala--Tecpán, March 29. Sonora--Rancho la Arizona, May 8. Arizona--Huachuca Mountains--May 28.

Early dates of spring arrival are: Tampico--Galindo, March 19. Coahuila--Sierra de Guadeloupe, April 20. Arizona--Oracle, April 12. California--Witch Creek, April 10. Washington--Tacoma, April 25.

Late dates of fall departure are: Washington--Edwards, October 19. California--Monterey, October 20. Arizona--Santa Catalina Mountains, September 29. Tamaulipas--Guiaves, October 7.

Early dates of fall arrival are: California--Berkeley, July 9. Arizona--Graham Mountains, July 30. New Mexico--Animas Peak, August 3. Michoacán--Tancitaro, August 16. Guatemala--Tecpán, September 13.

Casual records.--Specimens of the hermit warbler have been collected in the Huachuca Mountains in Arizona on June 16, 1894; at Basin in the Chisos Mountains in Texas on May 3, 1935; and near Cambridge, Minn., on May 3, 1931.

Egg dates.--California: 10 records, May 14 to June 25; 6 records, June 3 to 14, indicating the height of the season.

Washington: 3 records, June 5 to 11 (Harris).

DENDROICA CERULEA (Wilson)

CERULEAN WARBLER

PLATE 39

HABITS

This heavenly-blue wood warbler was first introduced to science, figured, and named by Wilson in the first volume of his American Ornithology. Only the male was figured and described from a specimen received from Charles Willson Peale and taken in eastern Pennsylvania. The female was not known until Charles Lucien Bonaparte described it in his continuation of Wilson's American Ornithology. Strangely enough the discovery of this specimen was also made by a member of the famous Peale family, Titian Peale, the bird having been taken in the same general region, on the banks of the Schuylkill, August 1, 1825. Audubon met with it later, but was almost wholly wrong in what he wrote about it, though his plate is good.

The species is now known to occupy a rather extensive breeding range located mainly west of the Alleghenies and east of the Great Plains from southern Ontario and central New York southward to the northern parts of some of the Gulf States and Texas. It is, however, decidedly local in its distribution over much of this range.

This warbler, a bird of the tree-tops in heavy deciduous woods, where its colors make it difficult to distinguish among the lights and shadows of the lofty foliage and against the blue sky, is well named cerulean! In his notes from central New York, Samuel F. Rathbun writes: "The type of growth to which the cerulean warbler is partial appears to be the rather open forests in the lowlands and often along some stream. During the nesting season, it will not be found to any extent in the better class of hardwood trees of the uplands; in fact, this warbler shows a strong liking for areas where large elms and soft maples and black ash are the dominant trees." Verdi Burtch wrote to Dr. Chapman (1907) that near Branchport, N. Y., this warbler is "locally abundant in mixed growths of oak and maple with a few birch and hickory." In other portions of its range, it is found in mixed woods of maples, beech, basswood or linden, elm, sycamore, or oaks. Frank C. Kirkwood (1901) found that, in Maryland, "the species has a decided preference for high open woods clear of underbrush. * * * The trees are principally chestnuts, with oaks, hickorys, tulip trees, etc."