IBLE Email: 6/16/07
From Giancarlo Sadoti

I found a Hooded Warbler on Monday, June 11, 2007 near South Mountain in Owyhee County, ID. It was located in one of the aspen stands I am studying as part of my master's research. I am censusing 30 stands on South Mountain and the Indian Meadows area for breeding birds. I am also monitoring these stands for nesting woodpeckers. This stand is on a jeep trail in the vicinity of Indian Meadows.

This bird was singing from upper and mid-canopy branches and foraging in the snowberry/aspen shrubs and aspen canopy. I returned the following morning (6/12/07) for a point count census. I was in the stand for 1/2 hour, but did not detect the bird again. I also returned the morning of 6/14/07 but again did not detect the bird (though I did see my first wood-pewee of the summer). Photos on the photo album (if I can get them uploaded) are from the shrub understory (first photo) and the aspen canopy (subsequent photos).

Additional details for those interested:

I had entered this stand at around 1:30 that afternoon (6/11/07) hoping to find a Northern Flicker nest. The stand and others in the area are occupied by Yellow-rumped, MacGillivray's, Wilson's, and Orange-crowned Warblers (as well as Lazuli Buntings), so the song of the Hooded Warbler wasn't immmediately obvious. I was waiting for the flicker to return to a suspected nest when I finally thought to look at this odd-sounding warbler. I immediately noticed the black hood but didn't think of Hooded Warbler, thinking it was perhaps a straggling northwestern warbler with which I wasn't familiar. I needed to return to my vehicle for my nest-camera equipment so I consulted my Sibley book. When I saw it was Hooded Warbler, I grabbed my camera and quickly returned to the stand. I have seen straying Hooded Warblers in New Mexico (a female in summer and a male in fall). I watched this bird for approximately 1 1/2 hours while monitoring the flicker nest. I was hoping for some better photos, but the bird moved into a very thick willow stand for 15-30 minutes and I had other sites to visit.

These photos [below] were taken with a Canon 20D DSLR with a 75-300mm (set at 300mm) 4-5.6 IS lens. If it's not obvious, these photos are highly cropped!

Lat/Long of this site is 42.68841485, -116.80540295. The site is around 1.5 acres (0.6 ha) in a matrix of juniper, sagebrush, and ceonothus. Elevation is around 6,600 feet.

Happy birding!

Giancarlo

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Giancarlo Sadoti
Graduate Research Assistant
Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Resources
University of Idaho
PO Box 441136
Moscow, Idaho 83844-1136
giancarlo@vandals.uidaho.edu