First reported on August 13, 2007, this is the first documented Fan-tailed Warbler in Texas.

On Sat. Sept. 8, after an overnight drive from Houston, Phyllis and Tony Frank arrived in Big Bend National Park. After sunrise, we bounced down the Glenn Springs road to the Pine Canyon trailhead. After assembling water and food, we started hiking the Pine Canyon trail. It was a beautiful morning. But our previous hiking experience has proved you cannot successfully watch for snakes and look for birds at the same time. Since checking for snakes was important, birding consisted mostly of listening for birds and watching the covey of Scaled Quail trot along the trail until finally flushing.

The Pine Canyon Trail starts in the desert habitat and you hike through the transition zones into forested canyon habitat. When we reached the pine forest, we heard and then saw a Northern Pygmy Owl, which is an accidental bird for Texas, being mobbed by a mixed flock of titmice and hummingbirds. We continued the hike to the Pine Canyon pouroff. After looking and listening along the upper portions of the trail near the pouroff, we heard the warbler sing below us and finally got a quick glimpse. During the next 2 hours, we watched the warbler as it was sporadically in view slowly working its way higher up the canyon. It stayed very low to ground and stayed almost continuously in the shadow of the trees and brush. It finally reached the area of rocks near the trail end and we had good views of the bird. The warbler repeatedly fanned its tail, showing the white tips, as it searched along the ground. Tony fired off numerous camera shots using manual focus because of all of the vegetation. After successfully photographing the bird, we finally lost view as it disappeared behind a rock. Then we enjoyed a relaxing picnic lunch at the pour off. Hiking out of the canyon we again saw the owl still being mobbed by the titmice and the hummingbirds.

— Phyllis and Tony Frank