Sighting Record for Utah

Common name:	Golden-winged Warbler
Scientific name:	Vermivora chrysoptera
Date:	June 5, 2022
Time:	11:55 am
Length of time observed:	First observation at 11:55 am was about 15 minutes. The second observation at 12:40 pm was about 10 minutes.
Number:	One
Age:	Adult
Sex:	Male
Location:	About 1 mile up the Mormon Trail off of Jeremey Ranch Road, Morgan County, Utah
County:	Morgan
Latilong:	40.82501, -111.59772
Elevation:	~6,280 feet above sea level
Distance to bird:	About 20 feet at the closest for the first glimpse and about 50 feet for the second glimpse. Recordings from 20 feet to about 150 feet.
Optical equipment:	First glimpse by naked eye. Second glimpse with Swarovski binoculars SLC 8x30 WB.
Weather:	Partly cloudy with some dark clouds to the west, but it never rained. Wind ~5 mph with gusts up to ~10 mph. Temperature estimated to be near 65 degrees Fahrenheit based on vehicle thermometer when driving away after the hike.
Light Conditions:	Observations were made with good lighting in the open under cloudy conditions.
Description: Size of bird:	Warbler-sized
(Description:) Basic Shape:	Warbler
(Description:) Overall Pattern:	Gray with bright yellow wing and crown patches
(Description:) Bill Type:	Unnoticed
(Description:) Field Marks and Identifying Characteristics:	The warbler was first identified by its regular singing in shrubby vegetation bordering a small creek. The song was very buzzy with only a few notes and similar to the buzzy songs of black-throated blue warblers that I have some experience with during trips in New England. All the warblers that I m familiar with in Utah do not have a song that is so buzzy. I tracked the song and approached to a distance of about 20 feet when I got my first glimpse of the warbler. It was a quick, naked-eye look of the warbler s side, and my vantage point of the warbler was slightly from behind and above it. Vegetation shielded the head, but the side had a large, bold and bright yellow patch on the wing contrasting with gray on the rest of the wing, back and flanks. When I tracked it down for the second and last glimpse, it popped up above me and briefly stayed long enough to get my binoculars on it for about a second. The bright yellow wing patch was the most obvious characteristic of the warbler, but it also had an equally bright yellow patch on top of the warbler s head and above the eye. The head patch extended forward to the base of the upper bill. After the observations I consulted the field guide app on my phone (The Sibley Guide to Birds first edition). Only then did I realize that I failed to notice the black throat and black mask bordered above and below by white stripes. The yellow patches on a generally gray body were what caught my eye in the brief glimpses I had of the warbler, so the viewing angles may have been such that the other bold features of the head and throat were missed or not obvious.
Song or call & method of delivery:	The warbler only sang as far as I could tell. I did not notice any calls. My close presence didn t seem to bother it, but on a couple of occasions it did stop singing for about a minute. It was not visible when it was singing. [Recordings: \| One \| Two \| Three \| ]
Behavior:	The warbler was not obviously visible, and stayed out of view while in the understory vegetation with lots of branches close to the ground. It seemed quite active based on how often the location of the song changed, so I suspect it was foraging for food. During the two times I briefly saw the warbler, it seemed to fly up to an upper, outer branch before it would fly off to another patch of dense vegetation.
Habitat:	The warbler was observed mostly along a small, slightly flowing creek, which will cease to have surface flows later in the year. The creek is bordered by occasional clumps of dense vegetation like dogwoods and willows. There were also mature cottonwood trees by the creek. The rest of the floodplain had some open meadows with grasses and forbes. North and south of the creek were moderately steep valley slopes. The slope to the north was drier and had patches of gamble oak and maples(?) surrounded by grassy areas. The slope to the south had aspens nearby and conifers in the steeper areas of the valley.
Similar species and how were they eliminated:	No other warblers in the field guide for the United States have similar yellow patches positioned on the body except for yellow-rumped warblers. The yellow wing patch on the golden-winged warbler is reminiscent of the yellow flank patch on a yellow-rumpled warbler, but there wasn t a contrasting white wing bar above the patch and no contrasting black on chest or black streaks on the flanks. The yellow wing patch on the golden-winged warbler contrasted with a gray-colored body. The yellow patch on top of the head of a yellow-rumped warbler is more localized, more difficult to casually observe, and doesn t extend forward to the bill. The song of the yellow-rumpled warbler is slurred with a variety of notes and not buzzy with only a few notes like the golden-winged warbler.
Previous experience with this & similar species:	No previous experience with golden-winged warblers. Yellow-rumped warblers are very abundant locally during migration and much of the winter in the Salt Lake Valley, so I have regular observations of them. My experience with warblers with buzzy songs similar to golden-winged warblers is limited to 29 individual black-throated blue warblers seen or heard during four checklists in New England in 2018 and 2021 and 33 black-throated green warblers seen or heard during eight checklists in New England in 2016, 2018 and 2021.
References consulted:	The Sibley Guide to Birds (first edition) app on an iPhone 6 that does not have a cellular plan was in hand at the time during observations. Song recordings were made using an app call Voice Record Pro in .m4a format.
Description from:	From memory
Observer:	John Neill
Observer's address:	1052 Roosevelt Avenue; Salt Lake City, UT 84105
Observer's e-mail address:	**
Other observers who independently identified this bird:	Additional observers later in the day include Kenny Frisch, Bryant Olsen, Max and Mike Malmquist, Weston Smith, Charles Hurd, Matthew and Darren Pendleton, David Wheeler, Lauri Taylor and others on June 5th and addition people on June 6th.
Date prepared:	Started on 6/5/2022. Completed and submitted on 6/7/2022.
Additional material:	Three recordings made in .m4a format \| One \| Two \| Three \|
Additional comments:	Prior to submitting my eBird checklist and alerting the Utah Rare Bird Alert Facebook group, I consulted with Kenny Frisch on my brief glimpses and audio recording.