Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora pinus), Joseph City, Navajo County

This Blue-winged Warbler was found by Tommy DeBardeleben on 26 August 2020 and photographed by Chris McCreedy on 29 August 2020

There are 17 previous records of this species for Arizona split between spring and fall. Blue-winged Warbler and Golden-winged Warbler form a pair of closely related species that hybridize and compete with each other. Historically Golden-winged has been the more westerly and northerly of the pair. Not surprisingly there are many more records of Golden-winged Warbler in Arizona than of Blue-winged. However, Blue-winged has been aggressively expanding westward and northward into the Golden-winged Warbler's traditional range and is displacing it. It will be interesting to see if this results in an increase in Blue-winged Warbler records in Arizona.

Note the yellow head and underparts, white undertail coverts, dark eyeline, white wingbars, and grayish-blue wings.

29 August 2020, photo by Chris McCreedy

All photos are copyrighted© by photographer