Laura Erickson’s For the Birds

The Hermit Warbler is more common than it would seem to birders—its shy and retreating habits keep it from being observed often in the tops of some of the tallest trees on the planet in its breeding range of in the Pacific coniferous forests of Washington, Oregon, and California. It winters in Mexico down into Central America.

Townsend’s Warblers hybridize with Hermit Warblers and seem to be displacing them little by little. Some female Hermit Warblers seem to prefer to mate with Townsend’s over Hermit males.