PEEPS

Golden-crowned Warbler - Texas

On 1 April Jon McIntyre discovered and photographed an ABA Code-4 Golden-crowned Warbler (Basileuterus culicivorus) at the Packery Channel Park in Corpus Christi, Texas. There are at least 16 accepted records of Golden-crowned Warbler in Texas and one record of a photographed bird from Melrose Trap, New Mexico (ABA Checklist, 7^th Edition, Pranty et al.). 

Golden-crowned Warbler is resident from central Nuevo León and Nayarit, Mexico, south to northern Argentina. It is not surprising that a species with such a wide range has as many as 13 subspecies.  Birds in the northern, “culicivorus group” are sometimes called Stripe-crowned Warbler and those in the southern, ”cabanisi group” are sometimes called Cabanis’s Warbler. The Basileuterus genus, exclusive to the New World, currently has 24 recognized species (Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 15).

Crescent-chested Warbler - Arizona

On 2 April Ginny Seabrook, while leading a field trip to Arizona’s Arivaca Cienega, scoped an ABA Code-4 Crescent-chested Warbler (Oreothlypis supercliosa). The A.O.U. Check-list Committee recently moved Crescent-chested Warbler out of the genus, Parula, and into the Oreothlypis genus. Unlike arboreal nesting Parula warblers, Crescent-chesteds place their nests on or near the ground (Warblers, Dunn and Garrett).

There are at least six accepted records (more reports) of Crescent-chested Warbler in Arizona and two reports from Texas, one at Falcon Dam in the '70s and one report from Boot Spring in Big Bend National Park, Texas, making it to the state’s Presumptive Species List (ABA Checklist, 7^th edition, Pranty et al.). It is a neotropical montane species whose range is from at least as close as 200 miles from the U.S. border with Mexico, south in the montane regions of Mexico to Honduras and into north-central Nicaragua. In the northern part of the Crescent-chested's range it has been shown to move downslope in winter months.  At least one of the Arizona winter records is a bird wintering along Sonoita Creek. They frequently forage by gleaning insects from medium heights in trees and shrubs (Warblers, Dunn and Garrett).