Connecticut Warbler

Table

Connecticut Warbler – Accepted
1. 16 Jun 1958	SY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1986-273	14	CAS 84321
2. 27 Sep 1963	HY	Tijuana R. valley SD	1985-016	11	SDNHM 30776
3-4. 22 Sep 1965	AHY HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1986-274/1986-275	14	CAS 84322, CAS 84323
5. 04 Jun 1968		Pt. Loma SD	1986-035	10	ph.
6. 13 Sep 1968	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1987-207	14	ph.
7. 18 Jun 1969		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1988-027	14
8. 11 Sep 1974	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1987-113	14
9. 19 Sep 1974		Tijuana R. valley SD	1980-186	7
10. 22 Sep 1974		Stovepipe Wells INY	1974-079	3
11. 23–29 Sep 1974	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1978-081	11	ph., Roberson (1980)
12-13. 23 Sep 1974	2	Southeast Farallon I. SF 1986-174/1986-175	11	ph.
14. 26 Sep 1974		Pt. Reyes MRN	1975-037	3
15. 29 Sep 1974		Pt. Reyes MRN	1975-036	3
16. 29–30 Sep 1974		San Nicolas I. VEN	1980-144	6
17. 29–30 Sep 1975	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1984-004	9
18. ? Oct 1975	HY	Pescadero SM	1984-204	10	MVZ 164784
19. 19 Jun 1976		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1978-017	4	ph., Luther (1980), Roberson (1980)
20. 14 Sep 1978		San Diego SD	1979-043	5
21. 22 Oct 1978		Santa Cruz SCZ	1978-115	5
22. 01–05 Sep 1980	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1988-042	14	ph.
23. 12 Sep 1980	HY	Palomarin MRN	1986-392	14	ph.
24. 19 Sep 1980		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1981-009	7	ph.
25-26. 04–12 Oct 1980	≤ 2	Pt. Loma SD	1980-213	7	ph.
27. 23 Sep 1982	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1988-029	14
28. 10 Oct 1982		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1987-114	11	ph., Pyle & Henderson (1990)
29. 15 Sep 1983	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1988-031	14
30. 25 Sep 1983		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1987-208	11	ph.
31. 26 Sep 1983	HY	Pt. Reyes MRN 1983-074/1993-080	9,17
32. 07 Oct 1983		Pt. Reyes MRN	1985-127	10
33. 11 Oct 1983	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1988-030	14
34. 20 Sep 1984		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1987-115	11	ph.
35. 01–02 Oct 1984		Oceano SLO	1984-217	10
36. 14 Oct 1984		Pt. Reyes MRN	1984-259	10
37. 06–07 Sep 1985	AHY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1985-183	11
38. 06 Sep 1985	AHY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1985-194	11	ph.
39. 01–02 Oct 1985	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1986-014	11	ph.
40. 13–14 Oct 1985		Oceano SLO	1986-004	11
41. 12 Sep 1986	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1987-062	12	ph., CAS 84370
42. 12 Sep 1986		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1987-063	12	ph., Langham (1991)
43. 02 Sep 1987	HY	Coyote Creek near Alviso SCL	1987-271	13	ph.
44. 21–24 Sep 1987	AHY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1988-011	13	ph., Pyle & Henderson (1990)
45. 27 Sep 1987	HY	Big Sycamore Canyon VEN	1987-383	13	Fig. 418, ph., Dunn & Garrett (1997:492)
46. 09 Oct 1987		Pt. Reyes MRN	1988-058	13
47. 12 Oct 1987	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1988-012	13	ph., Pyle & Henderson (1990)
48. 09–16 Sep 1988		Lanphere Dunes HUM	1988-265	15	ph.
49. 23–25 Sep 1988		Montaña de Oro State Park SLO	1988-178	13
50. 13 Sep 1989		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1989-181	15
51. 13 Sep 1989		Fairhaven HUM	1990-037	15
52. 27–28 Sep 1989		Mad R. mouth HUM	1990-038	15
53. 28–29 Sep 1989		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1989-182	15	ph.
54. 11 Oct 1989		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1989-183	15	ph.
55. 16 Jun 1990		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1990-090	15
56. 14–15 Sep 1990		Pt. Loma SD	1990-129	16
57. 18 Sep 1990		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1991-009	16	ph.
58. 22 Sep 1990		~4 mi. s Half Moon Bay SM	1990-187	16
59. 22 Sep 1990		Stovepipe Wells INY	1990-167	16
60. 22–27 Sep 1990		Scotty’s Castle INY	1990-168	16	ph.
61. 28–30 Sep 1990		Goleta SBA	1990-179	16
62. 07 Sep 1991	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1991-159	17	ph., see records not submitted
63. 14–15 Sep 1991	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1991-160	17	see records not submitted
64. 25 Sep 1991		Coyote Creek near Alviso SCL	1991-236	17	ph.
65. 18–19 Sep 1992	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1993-009	18	video
66. 03–04 Oct 1992	HY	Bodega Bay SON	1992-269	18	ph.
67. 18 Oct 1992		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1992-296	18	ph.
68. 15 Sep 1993		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1993-208	19	ph.
69. 27 Sep 1993		Carmel R. mouth MTY	1993-163	19
70. 02 Oct 1993		Big Sur R. mouth MTY	1993-171	19	ph.
71. 04–06 Oct 1993		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1993-209	19	ph.
72. 18–20 Sep 1994	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1994-197	20	ph.
73. 18–20 Sep 1994	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1994-198	20	ph.
74. 09 Sep 1995	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1995-137	21	ph.
75. 21 Sep 1995	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	1995-138	21
76. 23 Sep 1995		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1996-016	21	ph.
77. 01 Oct 1995		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1995-139	22
78. 24–27 Sep 1996		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1997-035	23	ph.
79. 12 Sep 1998	HY	Pacific Grove MTY	2002-051	27	PGNHM 2428
80. 07 Sep 1999		Ridgecrest KER	2000-049	26
81. 23 Sep 1999	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	2000-022	25	ph.
82. 01 Oct 1999		Southeast Farallon I. SF	2000-023	25	CAS 88970 (feathers)
83. 02–04 Oct 1999	HY	Pt. Reyes MRN	1999-162	25	ph., Rogers & Jaramillo (2002)
84. 03 Sep 2000	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	2001-018	26
85. 07 Sep 2000		Galileo Hill KER	2000-131	26
86. 19–20 Sep 2000		Inyokern KER	2005-168	31
87. 01 Oct 2000		Natural Bridges State Beach SCZ	2000-121	27
88. 22 Sep 2001		Pt. Reyes MRN	2001-212	27
89. 23 Sep 2001		Galileo Hill KER	2001-158	27	video
90. 23 Sep–04 Oct 2001		Southeast Farallon I. SF	2002-017	27	ph., Garrett & Wilson (2003)
91. 10 Sep 2002		Mt. Davidson SF	2002-197	28
92. 03 Oct 2002	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	2003-008	28	ph.
93. 27 Sep 2003		Southeast Farallon I. SF	2003-135	29	ph.
Connecticut Warbler – Not accepted, identification not established
12 Sep 1973		Paradise BUT	1977-154	5
31 May 1974		Santa Barbara I. SBA	1980-012	7
15–16 Sep 1975		Big Sycamore Canyon VEN	1976-039	3
18 Sep 1976		San Francisco SF	1976-115	3
06 Oct 1977		Pt. Reyes MRN	1977-133	5
29 Oct 1977		Pt. Loma SD	1979-044	6
05 Oct 1978		Southeast Farallon I. SF	1988-028	16
06 Oct 1978		Pacific Grove MTY	1992-024	14
25 Sep 1983		Carpinteria SBA	1983-133	12
20 Sep 1984		Pt. Reyes MRN	1984-212	12
24 Sep 1984		Lanphere Dunes HUM	1985-077	10
20 May 1990		Mojave KER	1990-070	15
19 Sep 1990		Galileo Hill KER	1991-042	16
16 Sep 1996		Montaña de Oro State Park SLO	1996-175	23
12 Sep 1997		Furnace Creek Ranch INY	1997-188	23
20 Sep 1997		Morro Bay State Park SLO	1998-037	23
13 Sep 1998		Big Sur R. mouth MTY	1998-192	24
08 Oct 1999		Goleta SBA	2000-028	26
15 Sep 2001		Galileo Hill KER	2001-154	27
20 Sep 2002		Morongo Valley SBE	2002-169	28
Connecticut Warbler – Not submitted
27 Sep 1964		Pebble Beach MTY		14
28–30 May 1965		Southeast Farallon I. SF		14	Tenaza (1967), DeSante & Ainley (1980)
04 Oct 1968		Southeast Farallon I. SF		14	DeSante & Ainley (1980), Richardson et al. (2003)
early Sep 1980		Southeast Farallon I. SF			AB 35:224, see table entry 22
20 Sep 1980		Furnace Creek Ranch INY		14	AB 35:228
31 Aug 1981		Carmel R. mouth MTY		14	AB 36:216
07–15 Sep 1991		Southeast Farallon I. SF			AB 46:147, see table entries 62-63
12 Jun 1999		Butterbredt Spring KER			NAB 53:434
14 Sep 2002		Muir Beach MRN			NAB 57:115

Figures

Figure 417. Distribution of 93 Connecticut Warblers accepted through 2003. All but seven have been coastal, with Southeast Farallon Island accounting for more than half of the state’s total.

Figure 418. This first-fall Connecticut Warbler was photographed on 27 September 1987 stepping, not hopping, at Big Sycamore Canyon in Ventura County (1987-383; Larry Sansone).

Figure 419 (above). Although spring vagrants account for three of the first seven Connecticut Warblers found in California, fall birds account for 84 of the last 86, with a peak in the second half of September. All five of California’s spring records are from the period of 4–19 June. See also Appendix H.

Connecticut Warbler

CONNECTICUT WARBLER Oporornis agilis (Wilson, 1812)

Accepted: 93 (82%)	Treated in Appendix H: yes
Not accepted: 20	CBRC review: all records
Not submitted/reviewed: 9	Color image: none

This terrestrial warbler’s northern breeding limit extends from northeastern British Columbia and central Alberta east to central Quebec. The southern limit stretches from northern Minnesota east to northern Michigan. Spring migration is primarily through Florida and the Midwest, but most southbound birds follow a more easterly path that probably includes a non-stop flight over the Atlantic Ocean to wintering grounds believed to lie in Amazonian South America (Paynter 1995, Dunn and Garrett 1997). Fall migrants are regularly encountered in Bermuda, less so in the West Indies. The species is considered a vagrant on the western Gulf coast, on the Great Plains, and in the West, where most occur along the Pacific coast from southern British Columbia south to northern Baja California Sur. Vagrants have also reached Clipperton Atoll, Central America, and the western Caribbean.

California’s first Connecticut Warbler was a first-spring male collected on 16 June 1958 on Southeast Farallon Island (Bowman 1961), a location that claims first state records of five other wood-warbler species. Connecticut Warblers are notoriously difficult to find, and Southeast Farallon’s manageable size, limited vegetation, and ever-present corps of birders and banders combine to make it ideally suited to the task—more than half of the state’s records (50 of 93) come from this one rock! Six records from the state’s interior are evenly split between eastern Kern County and Death Valley, Inyo County (Figure 417).

Fall records (2 September–22 October) account for all but five of California’s total, and nearly three-fourths of these are from September (Figure 419); see also Appendix H. Interestingly, three of the state’s first seven records—all before 1970—involve vernal vagrants, yet there has not been a spring record of this species since 1990. The five spring records, four of which come from Southeast Farallon Island, establish a tight interval of 4–19 June. This late spring pattern accords with the species’ late migration timetable in the East, where the first northbound birds typically do not reach southern Florida until early May (Robertson and Woolfenden 1992).

Fifty out of 51 reports from Southeast Farallon Island have gained CBRC endorsement, compared with only 43 of 62 elsewhere (69%). The mainland’s modest acceptance rate reflects the difficulty that observers often encounter convincing the Committee that other skulking, yellow-breasted warblers—particularly the Mourning Warbler and Common Yellowthroat—could not have been involved. Identification of Oporornis warblers has been capably treated by Lanyon and Bull (1967), Kowalski (1983), Gustafson (1988), Pyle and Henderson (1990), Curson (1992), Curson et al. (1994), and Dunn and Garrett (1997).