Irwin studied Audubon and myrtle warblers in the hybrid zone where they interbreed. The researchers believe the two American populations are in the early stages of speciation and on separate evolutionary paths due to the distinctness of their characteristics, and absence of sustained interbreeding beyond a hybrid zone located in Canada. This was interesting because most people believed the black-fronted and goldmanвЂ™s warblers were more closely related to AudubonвЂ™s warbler due to common phenotypic characteristics, like all three having a yellow throat. In addition, the AudubonвЂ™s and myrtle warbler were found to be most related due to three shared haplotypes. Mila found the GoldmanвЂ™s and Black-fronted warbler are more closely related to each other, but they diverged within the last million years, and since they form their own monophyletic groups should be considered distinct. Mila and colleagues, used mitochondrial DNA of all four populations of warblers to construct a phylogeny, which shows how similar each population is to each other based on differences and similarities in their DNA. Two papers, one by Mila et al (2007) and another by Brelsford and Irwin (2009) have argued the four populations of Yellow-rumped warblers are distinct and should be recognized as separate species. The grouping of the species has been an ongoing topic of discussion in many birding communities, and until recently not very many papers looked at the genetic similarities of the populations. In addition, there are two more populations of yellow-rumped warblers, one in Guatemala (GoldmanвЂ™s warbler) and another in Mexico (Black-fronted warbler). They used to be considered two distinct species, but are now recognized as one. There are two subspecies of the yellow-rumped warblers in the United States: eastern, called Myrtle warblers, and western, called Audubon warblers. At one point it landed on the ground, and I inched closer to try to get a better view and a picture, and boom, it flew away it was then I realized I really need to invest in a good camera. One of the most exciting parts of watching the bird was seeing its slight, but rapid movements.

I was really excited, so I took out my camera and I was determined to get as close as I could to get a picture on my very amateur pocket-sized camera. The bird kept hopping off the branch and then returning, and then moved to some other branches as if it were keeping a rotation going.

I pulled out my Birds of Texas book, which I like better than the Sibley guide, and all but confirmed my guess at a yellow-rumped warbler ( Dendroica coronate), until it turned its back to me and I spotted the yellow on its behind, and I was able to cement the identity. I was excited because I had a good idea of the bird thanks to a previous bird list we studied in class. It was a nice light-gray bird, with a sharp black beak and a little yellow on the flank of its chest. I was practicing the birding spotting technique where you keep your eyes focused and вЂњnonchalantlyвЂќ pull your binoculars up to your eyes to keep your spot, which is harder than it seems, especially for small jumping birds. I saw an eastern phoebe (hopefully this is correct -IвЂ™ve been known to label any flycatcher I see as a phoebe, or describe them with reference to phoebes), a mockingbird, a female northern cardinal, and then I saw a little bird jumping around from branch to branch and set my binoculars on it. Luckily, there were a lot of birds singing and moving around in the bushes and trees adjacent to the field where my plot is located. When I reached my plot I saw the leaves on the tall Chinese tallow trees ( Sapium sebiferum) surrounding the area werenвЂ™t out from winter and I couldnвЂ™t find any of my trees, so I couldnвЂ™t collect any data.

On a side note, I believe everyone should do their part to help control the feral hog population, and it is one animal I have no qualms about hunting (they taste really good too). As I drove in some more I came across a group of feral hogs that were as surprised to see me as I was them I have to admit I was pretty pumped to see them. As I drove in I saw some vultures and some shore birds I could not quite make out. I went to check on my senior thesis project down at the University of Houston Coastal Center, and made sure to bring my binoculars and field notebook to check out some birds, which I was sure would be in the area.

Yellow rumped warbler winter plumage