Gary Froehlich has very generously allowed me to post some absolutely remarkable photos of the Fan-tailed Warbler he discovered at New Mexico’s Melrose Migrant Trap.

Photo: Gary K. Froehlich

Several photos are up at The Wingbeat, and each one is better than the one before. Gary also shares the secret of getting such astonishingly good views of this skulky bird, a tip that may help those of you fortunate enough to go looking for it this weekend.

The Fan-tailed Warbler discovered yesterday morning at the Melrose Migrant Trap in Roosevelt Co., New Mexico, is still being seen today. Matt Baumann has very kindly allowed us to post a photo of the bird at The Wingbeat.

Besides being a supremely cool-looking bird, Fan-tailed Warbler (no longer to be confused with Zitting Cisticola) has an honored place in the history of North American birding: the antics of this species provide a leitmotif in George Sutton’s First Impressions, the book that in many ways stands at the beginning of birding in Mexico.

A Crescent-chested Warbler was reported yesterday from the Chiricahua Mountains.

This beautiful tropical parulid–a bit like a cross between a Tennessee Warbler and a Northern Parula–has become more common, or at least more commonly detected, in Arizona over the past several years, with an apparent breeding record from higher up in the Chiricahuas a couple of summers ago. Last week at the IOU meeting, I predicted that this species would become the Rufous-capped Warbler of the next decade, and so far, I seem to be right. Even a blind hog….

Finding this bird, if it lingers, can be made easier by learning the song: a high-pitched, thin, buzzy trill on one pitch (which I guess would be a tremolo, not a trill). It’s notoriously insect-like–without sounding particularly like any specific insect.

The Texans and the Oklahomans out there won’t be as dazzled, but it pays to remember that Black-capped Vireo, with only a single Arizona record from nearly 40 years ago, is rarer in the state than either Blue Mockingbird or Sinaloa Wren (both of those rarities, by the way, are still being seen).

A male Black-capped Vireo was reported this morning from Miller Canyon, home of Beatty’s Guest Ranch and hummingbird heaven. If this sighting is adequately documented, it will be Arizona’s bird of the year for sure.

Richard Webster discovered a Blue Mockingbird today near Douglas, Arizona. There are three previous records in the state, two of which–in 1991-92 and in 1995–arrived in late winter and lingered into March and April.  Maybe this one will be chaseable, too; I expect the airlines will be busy into Tucson this weekend!