[Tweeters] Townsend's vs. Hermit vs. hybrid warblers by song

[Michael Hobbs]

In my experience, in the portion of Washington that has Townsend's, Hermit,
and hybrids, they will all sing and respond to any variation of their
collective songs.  If you play a typical Townsend's song at a Hermit that
was singing a typical Hermit song, the Hermit Warbler will come in and sing
a Townsend's song back at you.  And vice versa.  Black-throated Grays will
also get into the mix, singing songs closer to Townsend's/Hermit in the
Hermit zone.

So I would never try to use voice to distinguish TOWA, HEWA, and TOxHE in
the Hermit Warbler range in Washington.

= Michael Hobbs

On Mon, May 22, 2023 at 9:41 AM Jason Zolle <zollejd at gmail.com> wrote:


> Hi tweets,

>

> I am wondering if anyone is aware of any resources or has any useful

> information they can share related to distinguishing Townsend's and Hermit

> Warblers by song (1) from each other and (2) from hybrids.

>

> To the first, I have read the relevant sections of The Warbler Guide,

> looked at many sonograms, listened to numerous recordings, and while I feel

> like I have a handle on identifying some songs by ear, I still am not

> nearly as comfortable as I would like here, and would love some suggestions

> to improve.

>

> To the second, we birded Saturday north of Packwood in an apparent hybrid

> area and the majority of TOWA/HEWA songs we heard had me throwing up my

> hands in confusion.  I suspect that may have been because many were

> abnormal songs of hybrids -- of the 8 birds we called in for visual

> identification, 4 were phenotypically pure Townsend's and 4 were hybrids (3

> of those 4 being almost pure Hermit).  I found a 1995 British Columbia

> birding article online that cites a 1983 article (which I cannot find) to

> the effect of "hybrids in Oregon sing like Hermit Warblers, and hybrids in

> Washington sing like Townsend's Warblers."  That seems a bit simplistic and

> I am hoping to get more information if possible on what to listen for (or

> look for in a spectogram) so I can more confidently identify these birds by

> ear without feeling the need to call each one in for a visual inspection.

> I also am wondering if anyone knows whether pure Townsend's sing abnormal

> songs in a hybrid zone, perhaps because they are learning from their dad's

> hybrid neighbors.

>

> I have thought that Merlin sound ID, which of course isn't perfect but

> often does a good job at seeing things in spectograms that are not readily

> apparent to the ear, would have been helpful in this task, but particularly

> in the hybrid zone it seemed to be equally confused, often showing both

> Hermit and Townsend's simultaneously or switching between the two.  (And if

> it did show one bird only, that bird was almost always Hermit, which was a

> bummer because not a single bird we saw visually appeared as a pure

> Hermit).  This leads me to think that maybe the songs do have elements of

> both that the AI is picking up on.  I just would love to know exactly what

> it is seeing in the spectograms to make the call.

>

> Thank you!

> Jason

> Olympia, WA

>

>

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