october's birds

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Posted by Chris Wood (12.75.84.219) on October 19, 2000 at 19:40:28:

Hmmm . . . something must be wrong here. I looked at the photos and thought Bewick's Wren and MacGillivray's Warbler. Of course, usually when I come here and look at a photo, I have a first impression that quickly changes, maybe changes back, and then I'll mull it over for a while. This is often interspersed with some tinkering around with the brightness and contrast of my monitor figuring that THAT must be the reason for my confusion.

In this case, though, I'll stick with these two.

BIRD 1: The warm brown barring on the visible portion of the wing coverts eliminates the vast majority of choices, leaving us mostly with wrens to deal with (a family which the shape, posture and bill further support). The unmarked clear gray breast, more whitish throat and face pattern indicate Bewick's.

BIRD 2: As for the warbler, the combination of a grayish head and bib, paler throat, bright yellow underparts, a fleshy base to the bill and eye arcs brings it to either MacGillivray's or Mourning Warbler. The lower eye arc in particular seems too strong and too well defined for any Mourning Warbler. The throat is certainly on the yellow side for a MacGillivray's, but within the range of variation. Of course, if the photo were taken in California in OCTOBER, I might give it a bit more of a look! ;)

Cheers,
CLW

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: Hmmm . . . something must be wrong here. I looked at the photos and thought Bewick's Wren and MacGillivray's Warbler. Of course, usually when I come here and look at a photo, I have a first impression that quickly changes, maybe changes back, and then I'll mull it over for a while. This is often interspersed with some tinkering around with the brightness and contrast of my monitor figuring that THAT must be the reason for my confusion. : In this case, though, I'll stick with these two. : BIRD 1: The warm brown barring on the visible portion of the wing coverts eliminates the vast majority of choices, leaving us mostly with wrens to deal with (a family which the shape, posture and bill further support). The unmarked clear gray breast, more whitish throat and face pattern indicate Bewick's. : BIRD 2: As for the warbler, the combination of a grayish head and bib, paler throat, bright yellow underparts, a fleshy base to the bill and eye arcs brings it to either MacGillivray's or Mourning Warbler. The lower eye arc in particular seems too strong and too well defined for any Mourning Warbler. The throat is certainly on the yellow side for a MacGillivray's, but within the range of variation. Of course, if the photo were taken in California in OCTOBER, I might give it a bit more of a look! ;) : Cheers, : CLW

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