West Texas Avian Research, Inc.: Calendar

Upcoming Events

July 23-August 3 Hummingbird Banding Bander Training in the Davis Mountains hosted by West Texas Avian Research Inc.
August 24-26 Fort Davis Hummingbird Festival

Presumed Colima X Virginia’s Warbler Hybrids in the Davis Mountains of Texas

A small population of breeding Virginia's Warblers were first discovered in the Davis Mountains of west Texas in 1990. Then, acquisition by the Nature Conservancy of portions of the higher elevations of the range in the mid-1990s allowed for additional detailed ornithological surveys and the discovery of the first Colima Warbler there in 1999. Since that time numerous field crews have observed birds that appeared to be intermediate between the two sibling species. For many years Mark Lockwood and Kelly Bryan have gathered and analyzed material supporting the theory that most of the birds in the Davis Mountains were hybrids. Their evidence is finally published in the journal North American Birds. We chose NAB because they typically do not limit the number of illustrations needed to support the text of an article. We hope you will agree that this problem required every single item we included the article, one that will challenge the ornithological world to possibly rethink the structure of the genus Oreothlypis. We look forward to the day that an aspiring Phd student will confirm our argument with DNA analysis.

This article may be read in Volume 70 (2018) North American Birds

Amethyst-Throated Hummingbird

On October 14, 2016 a once in a lifetime event occurred high up in the Davis Mountains of west Texas.

A juvenile male Amethyst-throated Hummingbird was spotted coming in to a feeder. It is believed to be the

first confirmed record for the United States and Texas. It was observed by Kelly Bryan, Charles Floyd and Carolyn Ohl and documented with photographs as well as being captured on video from a live hummingbird cam that was installed and operated by Cornell University Bird Cams Lab and sponsored by Perky Pet (http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/50/West_Texas_Hummingbirds/).

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