ML119372751

Age and sex

Unknown age, Female - X

Media notes

This apparent female Blue-winged Warbler, found the previous day by Nick Lethaby, was photographed by Curtis A. Marantz on 14 October 2018 along Carpinteria Creek, Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County, California.

Observation details

We again saw this bird in trees along the creek above 8th Avenue at 8:05-8:17 am, and relatively consistently from 9:15 am to 11:55 am. This was a relatively colorful and well-marked bird, yet for a Blue-winged Warbler its patterns seemed muted. The crown, nape, back, scapulars, and rump were a relatively bright, lime-green in color and seemingly unmarked; however, the lower edge of the green cap was demarcated by a relatively well-defined supercilium that connected narrowly across the forehead from which it extended back through the supraloral region, over the eyes, and then back about halfway across the upper edge of the auriculars. Contrasting more sharply with the supercilium than the green cap was the black eyeline that combined a line of medium width that extended through the lores from the base of the bill to the front part of the eye (where it was slightly broader than the eye where the two met), and then a narrower and relatively finely tapered wedge of black just behind the eye. The lower part of the face below the loral stripe and eye was a bright lemon-yellow, but the yellow extended backward only about halfway through the auriculars, the rear edge of which was the same shade of green as the back and sides of the neck. The throat, breast, belly, sides, and flanks were a bright, lemon-yellow from the chin down through the vent region, but the tapered undertail-coverts were a dull white from the vent to their terminus. I further noted a weak suffusion of olive to the sides of the breast and along the flanks, but in general, the underparts appeared to be yellow and unmarked. The underside of the tail showed white spots on the inner webs of the outer rectrices that were visible from just behind the undertail coverts, but the edge curved inward to reach the inner edge just short of the tips of the outer feathers. The white was framed by black on either side of the tail and the black expanded distally across the inner web to cover the tips of the outer feathers. Contrasting with the green back, the wings were more boldly marked and tending toward bluish in color. I noted bluish-gray at the shoulder, between the wingbars, and on the rear part of the wing. The median coverts were bluish-gray (and maybe a shade more blue than battleship-gray) basally before merging sharply6 with the white tips of these feathers to produce an upper wingbar that was both broader and shifted forward on the wing relative to the lower wingbar. The greater coverts had medium to dark gray centers that contrasted with both the relatively narrow white tips and edges that were about the same shade of blue-gray as the bases of the median coverts. Further apparent was a darker wedge along the leading edge of the wing that represented the primary coverts. The secondaries appeared to be medium to dark brownish internally, but with edges that were similar in color to those of the greater coverts that were narrow but well-defined on most of the feathers but broader and more poorly defined on the innermost secondaries, on which the contrast between the centers and edges was relatively subtle. Finally, the exposed primary tips appeared to be brownish and poorly marked, but I did see fringes that were sufficiently conspicuous for me to distinguish the various feathers in the wingtip. The upperside of the tail was dark gray with subtly paler edges that were probably light gray. The spread tail showed a moderate amount of white on the outer feathers. Whereas the bill typically appeared to be black, views directly from below suggested a narrow edge of a paler and seemingly flesh color on the inner part of the lower mandible that was not visible from the side. I once thought the eyes were dark brown when seen in good light and at relatively close range through my scope. The legs generally appeared to be dark, but I noted at least some flesh tones to the undersides of the legs. I thought both the toes and claws were generally dark.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

ISO

800

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/500 sec

Dimensions

1702 pixels x 1113 pixels

Original file size

3.11 MB