VERMIVORA CELATA SORDIDA (Townsend)
DUSKY ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER
Plate [15]
HABITS
The subspecific characters of this warbler, as given by the original describer, C. H. Townsend (1890), are: “Adult male: Entire plumage decidedly darker than H. celata lutescens. Feet and bill larger; wings slightly shorter. There is an appearance of grayness about the upper plumage, owing to a leaden tinge on ends of feathers. Throat and under parts slightly streaked.”
The principal breeding range of the dusky warbler is on the Santa Barbara Islands off the coast of southern California, but it has also been known to breed in San Diego and probably breeds farther south in Baja California, and on the Todos Santos Islands, off that coast.
The dusky orange-crowned warbler was discovered by Dr. Townsend on San Clemente Island January 25, 1889, but it does not seem to be so common there as on some of the other islands. According to A. Brazier Howell (1917) it has been reported from all of the channel islands except San Nicholas, which is too barren for it; and its occurrence on Santa Barbara Island is doubtful, as this precipitous island is not suited for it. It is probably commonest on Santa Catalina Island, “in the darker canyons and on the wooded hillsides.”
J. Stuart Rowley writes to me: “I found that the weekend nearest the 15th of April was the ideal time to hunt nests of this warbler on Catalina Island, and after much hiking about this island I finally located a little ravine, only about a mile or so out of the town of Avalon, where these warblers nested abundantly, due to the little trickle of surface water in the bottom of the ravine. Since most of the ravines here are dry, this one was ‘made to order’ and I enjoyed the chance to find many nests in the short time allotted to me. Around the middle of April this little ravine fairly trilled with the songs of many males, who were constantly pursuing trespassing individuals out of their nesting territories, only to return and continue their melodic songs.”