Introduction

Editor’s Note: Phylogenetic analyses of sequences of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA indicate that all species formerly placed in Dendroica, one species formerly placed in Wilsonia (citrina), and two species formerly placed in Parula (americana and pitiayumi) form a clade with the single species traditionally placed in Setophaga (ruticilla). The generic name Setophaga has priority for this clade. See the 52nd Supplement to the AOU Checklist of North American Birds for details. Future revisions of this account will reflect these changes.

This elegant warbler of western North America is a relatively common bird of piñon-juniper, pine, and mixed oak-pine forests. Found and first described by John Kirk Townsend (1837) near Ft. William (now Portland), Oregon, the Black-throated Gray Warbler was already known there as “Ah Kah a qual” by the Chinook (J. K. Townsend, in Audubon 1839). It breeds generally west of the Rocky Mountains from northern Mexico to British Columbia, and winters mostly in Mexico. It is a short-to medium-distance Neotropical migrant and, like many such migrants, is insectivorous. Unlike some other Neotropical migrants, Black-throated Gray Warbler populations do not seem to have been affected by human activities to any great extent, but changes are difficult to assess because so little is known about this species.

This bird tends to be relatively tame and is often readily observed at close quarters as it forages methodically among foliage. Nevertheless, little is known about many aspects of its natural history. Although its nests are not unusually hard to find and are often placed low enough to be observed easily, almost no information is available on the breeding biology of this species. The only intensive studies of this warbler have dealt with foraging (e.g., Keane 1991) and song (e.g., Morrison 1990).