Warbler

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: With this bird my intuition is to immediately key on the facial pattern, specifically on the apparent yellow internal mottling in the olive auricular patch. Townsend's seem to most typically have solidly-dark auriculars. I would also guess that the auriculars should look more solid in a Townsend's x Hermit with such a well-defined version of the former's facial pattern. I'm not sure if this is distinctive, but this yellow internal mottling seems to be much more typical of Black-throated Green. : Two of the photos are so overexposed that it's hard to say anything for sure about the underparts (and there is some annoying plant matter conveniently covering the sides of the vent in the other photo!) It does look like the streaking on the sides converges into a near solidly-dark area on the sides of the upper breast/lower neck, and the throat and upper breast do appear to be whitish with just a hint of dark mottling. The streaking on the sides looks a too heavy for a 1st-fall female Black-throated Green, but Dunn/Garrett emphasize that fall Black-throated Greens, particularly 1st-fall males and fall adult females can have the black on the throat and breast at least partially obscured by white tipping to the dark feathers (in fresh plumage), which would seem to be a good fit here. The combination of heavy streaking on the underparts and apparent total lack of detectable streaking on the back might also fit a 1st-fall male or fall adult female Black-throated Green better than a Townsend's or Townsend's x Hermit. : I have only minimal experience with this species, but I can't find any reason why this isn't a real Black-throated Green. : Cheers, : Phil Pickering : Lincoln City, Oregon

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