The GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER is a rare spring & fall vagrant to California;. It is now among the rarest of the eastern warblers to reach the State and vagrants have become comparatively more scarce in recent decades as its overall range has contracted in concert with range expansion by Blue-winged Warbler. Both species remain super-vagrants here, and a very few intergrades or hybrids between them have also been recorded.

All of my California records are listed below. Those preceded by H were found or co-found by me personally; those preceded by K receive some partial credit (e.g., I was involved in sorting out i.d. of a previously discovered bird or refound a vagrant that had been thought to have left). These are my personal Golden-winged Warbler records:

9/21/75    Fairhaven HUM    2: 1 male & 1 female; 12th & 13th CA recs
10/16/76    Scottys Castle INY    male; description & sketch in my notes
5/31/77    Oasis MNO    singing male; I was there when Van Remsen discovered it
5/24/79    Scottys Castle INY    singing male; description & sketch in my notes, photo (above)
5/23/87    Oasis MNO     male photographed (above)
5/30/87    Butterbredt Springs KER     male; description in my notes. This was was with a female Blue-winged Warbler!

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