ML188493571

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Behaviors

Foraging or eating

Media notes

Male Black-thrpated Blue Warbler initially found on 11 November 2019 by Gjon Hazard and here photographed by Curtis A. Marantz on 15 November 2019 at the Picacho State Recreation Area, Imperial County, california.

Observation details

This was a medium-sized warbler with a plump body and striking plumage patterns. The bill was slim, straight, and short, in that I thought it would have extended backward on the face to a point somewhere near the rear edge of the eye. I thought the crown was gently rounded on a head that was unremarkable in size for a warbler. I further thought the neck was short and stocky, and that the body was plump, full-chested, and with a posture that was midway between horizontal and diagonal. The medium-length wings had a primary projection that was more than half the length of the exposed secondaries, and wingtips that fell slightly short of the tips of the undertail coverts. The tail appeared to be about as long as the body without the head, and it seemed to be weakly notched at the tip. The legs and feet were unremarkable in their length and mass for a warbler of this size. This was a boldly marked bird that had colors that were unusual for a warbler. The forehead, crown, back and sides of the neck, and the back, scapulars, and rump were a deep blue in color. I was unsure if the blue extended down the forehead to the base of the upper mandible, but I did note that the blue of the crown and sides of the neck contrasted sharply with the black face along a demarcation that extended back along the upper edge of the supraloral and superciliary regions before curving down around the rear edge of the auriculars. I am less certain about how much black extended above the auriculars behind the eye. Below this line, the supraloral, superciliary, and auricular regions were uniformly black, as was the lower part of the face and the entire throat down to its junction with the breast. My recollection is that the black on the throat ended sharply at its junction with the breast, with the breast, belly, and undertail coverts all essentially white, though my views of the latter were not very good. The black also extended across the sides of the breast and at least most of the way back along the flanks. My views of the underside of the tail were insufficient to note any detail, or even if there were tail-spots. Returning to the upperparts, I noted no obvious pattern on the crown, neck, back, scapulars, or rump, but I did see what at times appeared to be a subtle wash of greenish on the upper back. The wings contrasted as darker than the back. I never clearly saw the lesser, median, or primary coverts, but I did see a narrow strip of white along the leading edge of the wing near the shoulder that I thought most likely represented the marginal wing-coverts. The greater coverts had a striped pattern that reflected on each feather a blue edge that contrasted relatively sharply with black on the inner part of the feather, but the fringes did not appear to expand or cross the tip of these feathers, so there was no clear suggestion of a wingbar. The remiges had sooty to blackish inner-webs that contrasted with fringes that were diffuse and bluish on the inner secondaries to produce a subtly striped pattern to the inner part of the wing. The fringes were narrower, better defined, and blending from blue to greenish as one moved through the secondaries to the primaries. Also quite conspicuous on the wing was a large, white spot that crossed the bases of several sets of outer primaries, but I was unsure to what degree it continued onto the inner primaries or secondaries. I also thought the exposed primary tips were black and seemingly unmarked. The upperside of the tail had a pattern much like that on the remiges, in combining bluish fringes on mostly blackish feathers to create a striped pattern that was a bit more diffuse than that on the wings. I thought the bill was black, but I noted only that the eyes were dark. I noted what appeared to be some contrast between a dark leading-edge to the legs and yellowish feet, but I was unsure if the yellow extended up the rear parts of the legs when seen from behind.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

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

ISO

1600

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/400 sec

Dimensions

2606 pixels x 1776 pixels

Original file size

8.45 MB