Hermit Warbler

Overview

Hermit Warbler: Small warbler, gray upperparts, white underparts, black-streaked flanks. Head is yellow with black throat and nape. Wings are gray with two white bars. Bill, legs and feet are black. They spend most of their time in the tops of tall fir and pine trees, making them difficult to see.

Range and Habitat

Hermit Warbler: Breeds from Washington to northern California and Sierra Nevada. Spends winters south of the U.S.-Mexico border. Preferred habitats include mature coniferous forests.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Hermit Warbler was first described in 1837 by John Kirk Townsend, an American naturalist, ornithologist and collector.
They hybridize with the Townsend's Warbler where their ranges overlap in Oregon and Washington. The hybrid zones are rather narrow and appear to be slowly moving, with the more aggressive Townsend's Warbler displacing the Hermit Warbler.
It once occurred in the Olympic Peninsula and into British Columbia, areas now occupied only by the Townsend’s. Warbler.
A group of hermit warblers are collectively known as a "seclusion" of warblers.

The Hermit Warbler has a large range, estimated globally at 340,000 square kilometers. Native to Mexico, the United States, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador, this bird prefers forest ecosystems that are temperate, subtropical, or tropical. The global population of this bird is estimated at 2,400,000 individuals and does not show signs of decline that would necessitate inclusion on the IUCN Red List. For this reason, the current evaluation status of the Hermit Warbler is Least Concern.