Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora pinus), Highlands Center for Natural History, near Prescott, Yavapai County

This Blue-winged Warbler was found and photographed by Carl Tomoff on 25 September 2015

There are only fourteen previous records of this species for Arizona (with two pending), if accepted this would be the first for Yavapai County. 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.

Yellow underparts, green back and nape, black line through the eye, and blue wings with white wing bars. Due to the frequent hybridization mentioned above, identification from back crosses can be challenging.

25 September 2015, photo by Carl Tomoff

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