Figure 288. California records of the Hooded Warbler have increased steadily since the 1970s, when it was considered a true rarity; the CBRC reviewed its records until 1978. Wintering birds, such as this adult female photographed on 18 January 1997 at San Jose in Santa Clara County, still generate considerable excitement (Les Chibana).

 

 

Figure 289. Spring vagrants, such as this adult male photographed on 23 April 2004 at Ridgecrest in Kern County, account for most of the Hooded Warblers found in California (Bob Steele).

 

Figure 422. Visiting desert oases in May is a productive strategy for finding the Hooded Warbler in California. This male was photographed on 13 May 2001 at Corn Spring, Riverside County (Larry Sansone).

 

 

 

 

 

HOODED WARBLER Wilsonia citrina (Boddaert, 1783)

Accepted: 17 (100%)	Treated in Appendix H: no
Not accepted: 0	CBRC review: records from 1971 through 19781
Not submitted/reviewed: NA	Large color images: see Figures

This warbler’s northern breeding limit extends from Iowa east to southern Ontario, New York, and Rhode Island. The southern limit stretches from eastern Texas east to northern Florida. Small, isolated populations are scattered west to central Texas and north to southern Minnesota and central Wisconsin. Most birds winter on the Yucatan Peninsula and in adjacent lowland regions, but the wider winter range includes the Atlantic slope, and to some extent the Pacific slope, from southern Mexico to Panama, with some birds reaching Bermuda and the northern West Indies. The species occurs casually during winter in the southern West Indies, northern South America, and the southern United States, exceptionally north to British Columbia (three December records) and Washington (two winter-season records, including one of a bird that successfully overwintered at Seattle, 31 December 1975–4 April 1976). Migrants have been found far north in Canada, including records from Newfoundland, northern Ontario, northern Manitoba, and Nunavut. Migrants and wintering birds occur casually across the West, primarily along the coast from southern British Columbia south to northern Baja California Sur. The species is accidental in the British Isles.

California’s first Hooded Warbler was a singing male present 4–6 May 1958 in San Francisco, San Francisco County (McCaskie 1970g). The state total presently stands at roughly 350 records, 76 of them during the “southeastern influx” of spring and summer 1992 (see Patten and Marantz 1996). Records steadily increased from the early 1970s to the mid 1990s, then leveled off for about a decade until a second invasion generated records of 49 Hooded Warblers in California during spring and summer 2004. Overall, about seven out of every ten have occurred in spring (15 April–1 July, peaking in May), including many occurrences in the southeastern deserts.

Numerous Hooded Warblers have summered in California, and some have nested. As part of the 1992 phenomenon, at least two pairs undertook three nesting attempts at the South Fork of the Kern River Preserve in Kern County. The state’s first successful nesting was confirmed on 9 August 1992 with the fledging of young in La Cañada Flintridge, Los Angeles County (AB 46:1180). Nesting was attempted during June 1994 at the mouth of the Big Sur River in Monterey County (FN 48:986), and a decade later, on 6 August 2004, young were fledged from this location (NAB 58:598). Other 2004 nesting attempts came from the Soquel Demonstration State Forest in Santa Cruz County (female feeding young on 10 August; NAB 58:598) and Goleta, Santa Barbara County (a nest with warbler and cowbird eggs on 3 July had been abandoned by 17 July with the nest going to SBNHM; NAB 58:602). In San Mateo County, nesting was confirmed at Butano State Park when a male present from 15 June to 8 July 2005 was seen with a food-carrying female on 2 July (NAB 59:652).

Records of fall vagrants (25 August–28 November, peaking mid September to mid October) are split fairly evenly between coastal and inland areas. Approximately ten birds have been found in winter. The northernmost of these comes from Bodega Bay, Sonoma County, on 13 January 2001 (NAB 55:225), but the species is capable of wintering much farther north, as evidenced by the Seattle record mentioned previously.

¹On the review list 1972–1978