Figure 279. Most California records of the Yellow-throated Warbler involve the most widespread and westerly subspecies, D. d. albilora. Those few birds showing characters of D. d. dominica have turned up in late fall and winter. This first-winter male—photographed on 14 January 1996 at Ramer Lake in Imperial County (1995-143; Larry Sansone)—was accepted as an apparent example of dominica by virtue of its yellowish supraloral area and long bill (foreshortened in this view). Although the lores are mostly yellow, the areas of white in the lores and on the chin are of potential concern. Note, however, that use of flash can accentuate white tones, and that coloration of these areas is variable in both albilora and dominica.

 

Figure 280. These 7 November 1999 sketches of a male Yellow-throated Warbler that went on to winter at Huntington Central Park, Orange County, show no trace of yellow in the supraloral region, suggesting a bird of the most expected subspecies, D. d. albilora (1999-197; Andrew Birch).

 

Figure 402 (above). Most Dendroica warblers breed in the northern United States and Canada, and vagrants from this genus tend to reach California in the fall. The Yellow-throated Warbler, however, breeds across the Southeast, and its spring-dominated pattern of westward vagrancy is consistent with the patterns established by several other species from that region (e.g., White-eyed and Yellow-throated Vireos, Kentucky and Hooded Warblers). A moderate peak is seen in September and October; winter and summer records are few.

 

Figure 403. Conforming to the Yellow-throated Warbler’s predominant pattern of spring vagrancy to California, this male was photographed on 25 April 1981 at Corn Spring in eastern Riverside County (1986-259; Herbert Clarke).

 

Figure 404 (right). Distribution of 99 Yellow-throated Warblers accepted through 2003. Records are concentrated along the southern and central coast, with localized groupings in coastal Humboldt, eastern Kern, and northern Inyo Counties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER Dendroica dominica (Linnaeus, 1766)

Accepted: 99 (94%)	Treated in Appendix H: yes
Not accepted: 6	CBRC review: all records
Not submitted/reviewed: 16	Large color images: see Figures

This warbler’s northern breeding limit extends from eastern Nebraska and southwestern Michigan east to New Jersey. The southern limit stretches from south-central Texas east to central Florida. Small, isolated populations are scattered north and west of the main range (Dunn and Garrett 1997). Subspecies dominica breeds along the Atlantic coast; D. d. stoddardi is rare and local on the Florida panhandle and adjacent coastal Alabama; D. d. flavescens is resident in the Bahamas; and the widespread D. d. albilora occupies the remainder of the breeding range. Nominate birds winter in the Southeast and rarely in Bermuda, but most winter in the northern West Indies; relatively few are recorded anywhere as vagrants. Subspecies albilora winters mainly from southern Texas south through eastern Mexico to Nicaragua (rarely south to Costa Rica) and uncommonly on the Pacific slope from Guerrero southward (Howell and Webb 1995, Dunn and Garrett 1997). In the East, extralimital records of albilora—most during fall—extend as far north as the Atlantic Provinces, southern James Bay (McRae and Hutchison 1983), and south-central Saskatchewan. This subspecies is casual across the West, including one record from British Columbia, two from Washington, five from Oregon, and nine from the Baja California Peninsula (as of 31 December 2006); vagrants have also occurred elsewhere in Mexico, and Arizona claims roughly 20 records (Rosenberg 2001). The species is accidental on Clipperton Atoll and in Colombia (Dunn and Garrett 1997).

A male Yellow-throated Warbler of subspecies albilora measured and photographed on 8 July 1969 at Southeast Farallon Island was the state’s first (DeSante and Ainley 1980). The great majority of California’s 99 accepted records involve albilora, although many birds have not been identified to subspecies. More than half of the state’s accepted individuals (56 of 99) were spring vagrants, with bracketing dates of 10 April and 8 July; one-third (32 of 99) were fall vagrants, with bracketing dates of 2 September and 6 December; eight occurred during winter (6 November–2 April); and three either oversummered or showed signs of potential nesting. The only bird known to oversummer in the state successfully was a female present from 11 May to 20 September 1981 in Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara County. This bird’s frequent interactions with a singing male Northern Parula fueled hopes of California’s first Sutton’s Warbler, a Yellow-throated Warbler × Northern Parula hybrid (see Binford 1985). Although that duo never exhibited any clear-cut breeding behaviors, one of two Yellow-throated Warblers present between 11 June and 1 July 1982 in Eureka, Humboldt County, was observed carrying nest material (Roberson 1986, Harris 2006).

The CBRC has endorsed three late fall records and two winter records as apparently involving dominica: Pt. Loma, San Diego County, 15 October–5 November 1969 (Craig 1972, Unitt 1984); Olema, Marin County, 12 December 1984–12 January 1985; Stinson Beach, Marin County, 29 November–6 December 1987; Ramer Lake, Imperial County, 17 December 1995–16 March 1996 (first-winter male, Figure 279); and Solana Beach, San Diego County, 24 October 2001. See also Appendix H. The Pt. Loma bird showed yellow above the lores and an exceptionally long bill, characters exhibited by stoddardi and the population of dominica that breeds on the Delmarva Peninsula of the mid Atlantic coast.

Birds of subspecies dominica are long-billed with the supraloral area and chin distinctly yellow. Many individuals from within the range of albilora show a yellow tinge to the supraloral area, some nominate birds may lack yellow there (Jaramillo 1993), and bill length varies considerably within the range of dominica, the shortest being exceeded in length by the longest-billed examples of albilora. For an example of a bird accepted as an apparent dominica, but showing ambiguous markings, refer to Figure 279 on page 262. See works by Parkes (1953), Baird (1958), Dunn and Garrett (1997), and Pyle (1997b) for more information.