Townsend’s Warbler

A Townsend’s Warbler visited Erika’s garden on 6 December 2020. This species breeds from Alaska, across British Columbia, south to the Olympic Peninsula, the Cascade Mountains of Washington, and the Rocky Mountains of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and western-most Montana. Birds winter from Vancouver Island, Puget Sound, and south along the Pacific Coast to Baja California and from southern Arizona south through much of Central America. Playing with eBird range maps, I notice an odd thing about this bird’s distribution in Olympia. They are often found in the urban area of the city during December and January. But in June and July, although found in the forests surrounding the city, they are absent from urban areas. This pattern does not seem to hold in other areas of Puget Sound (like in Tacoma or Seattle).