Again I'd like to thank everybody who contributed their thoughtful comments on these two. I did a rough tally on the opinions on the warbler and it came out approximately (several opinions were appropriately equivocal) Bay-breasted - 4; Pine Warbler - 2, Orange-crowned Warbler - 2 and Cape May, Blackpoll and Blue-winged warbler - 1 each. This was hardly a mandate. Several people suggested this bird may have been a worn adult. Perhaps, but the softness of the feathers and weirdness of the plumage seems more like a juvenile to me. Unlike shorebirds and hawks, the juvenal plumage of most songbirds is held only briefly and is subject to a great deal of wear as these feathers are usually rather soft and weak. Pale edges and wing-bars often appear on juveniles of species in which the adults lack these features. Also see David Fix's comments below.
There are some important structural and plumage features which I think eliminate all the possible Dendroica warblers. The tail is way too long and the undertail coverts too short for Bay-breasted, Blackpoll or Cape May. Pine Warbler should show distinct dark ear coverts and a larger bill. Blue-winged Warbler should be much brighter yellow below with darker wings and a much stronger eyeline and white undertail coverts. Also there is something wrong with the wing-bars, more than the lack of white tertial fringes. The front wing-bar is in the wrong place. It appears to be formed by the tips to the lesser coverts not the medians. I think this is wrong for any of the Dendroica candidates.
I admit to being puzzled by this photograph when Albert Ghiorso showed it to me many years ago. Albert identified it at the time as an Orange-crowned Warbler. I tried very hard to make it into something else, even exploring various hybrid combinations without much success. Finally several years ago at Briones Regional Park (Orinda, California) I saw a bird that looked very much like this one being fed by an adult Orange-crowned Warbler. I agree with Mac McCormick that most juvenile Orange-crowns have distinctly buffy wing-bars. In this case the whiteness of the wing-bars are probably partly photographic artifact. High speed Ektachrome film was used along with a stroboscopic telephoto flash to take this picture. That combination often washes out light buff coloration and may make it look whiter than normal.
David Fix added some excellent points via email, "... I just looked at the bird as it unrolled on the monitor, and remembered the late June date, ... and figured without analyzing it that it was just a young local Orange-crown, .... It's perfect timing and also I knew beforehand from seeing them that the juvies have trace wing-bars in first-juvenal plumage. The whitish areas and odd face pattern didn't bother me. ..... The bird's a few days out of the nest maybe. It just looks too much like an Orange-crowned Warbler to me. Also, I figured the bird can't be anything but a juvenile and if so, what other similar species would show up there in the last week of June? Any Dendroica adult at this date could be in early prebasic molt but again, if so, would surely show remnant fully-tipped median &/or greater coverts (not odd-looking thin tipping) and also at least enough alternate plumage --even if a female-- to look identifiable based on that. The tail also ought to be molting visibly if body molt is well-along. The bird's bill looks brief and also pale-based which is perhaps another supporting mark for a Hatch Year Local."
Some years ago I inflicted this photograph on a panel of identification experts at a Western Field Ornithologists meeting. The reaction of the assembled experts was mixed, but I recall that Jon Dunn and Kimball Garrett agreed it was an Orange-crowned which is what I think it is.
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| It's spring warbler time! To celebrate we offer this mystery warbler photographed at the tip of Point Reyes, California on 28 June 1982 by Albert Ghiorso. This area is famous for eastern vagrants but western species are here too. What is this one? Click on the image to view full size. | Nick Lehaby contributed this interesting gull photo from Honshu, Japan taken in early February. Nick writes that it had an all dark tail. Is it an American (L. a. smithsonianus) or Vega (L. a. vegae) Herring Gull; or a Slaty-backed Gull? Click on the image to view full size. |
What do you think these birds are? Please click here to view comments or add your own. Thanks.