For those wishing to know the differences between Winter and Pacific Wrens, I
recommend googling images on-line. The photos show considerable differences not
shown in the field guides. Most notable is the fact that Winter Wren is, at
least in most case, much grayer on the head. One would never mistake one of
those gray headed birds for a Pacific Wren.
Darrel
From: "Craig Miller" <gismiller@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "hannah fritz" <hannah.fritz@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "OBOLINKS" <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2016 9:34:15 PM
Subject: [obol] Re: Winter/Pacific Wrens
If the description on ebird makes note of how it was different from a Pacific
Wren, then it wasn't reported by accident. If Pacific Wren was not mentioned,
then assume it was an innocent mistake.
In any case this species has not yet been reported or considered by the Oregon
Birds Records Committee, so the description would need to be very convincing to
be acceptable.
Craig Miller
On Jan 27, 2016 5:01 PM, "Hannah Fritz" < hannah.fritz@xxxxxxxxx > wrote:
I've seen a few eBird rare bird reports of Winter Wrens come in lately. (Well,
one from Columbia County earlier this month which still lists Winter Wren, and
of course the Multnomah one today which even had photos.) Am wondering about
people's thoughts about the veracity of such claims.
Are they just mis-IDs from people unfamiliar with the split between Pacific and
Winter Wren that occurred however long ago, and the fact that they're getting
prompted to provide details as an RBA raises no red flags? Or is there a
possibility of Winter Wren occurring West of the Cascades? I know sometimes
range maps can be out of date, or misleading (take Black Phoebes, for example).
I'm assuming the former, but who am I to assume anything? No expert, certainly
And if there is a possibility of legit Winter Wrens to be found, I need to
brush up on vocalizations I guess.
(Sorry to go off topic and discuss birds...)
Hannah
St. Helens
