ML215748641

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

An interesting looking warbler which appears to be a hybrid Grace's X Yellow-rumped Warbler. Various textbook resources, e.g. Dunn & Garrett (1997). Warblers, mention one record of this hybrid combination, a Grace's X Yellow-rumped (Audubon's) Warbler, from Colorado. I first picked out this warbler by its unusual "chip" call which sounds different from local winter resident (Audubon's) Yellow-rumped and Townsend's Warblers. After hearing it over a couple days I was lucky to have this close encounter, looking straight into a pine tree canopy from my patio, and also managed to grab my camera in time as it searched over the tips of the pine tree. I have only seen this warbler feed in pine tree branch ends picking into the fresh bunches of needles. It does not fly down to the ground to feed or make aerial insect catching flights as one sees Yellow-rumped Warblers often doing. I think there appears to be Yellow-rumped Warbler parentage because of the greenish-yellow rump belt and some yellow at chest sides, also the white eye arcs. Not everything fits with Yellow-rumped Warbler though, in fact several features discordant with this species, for example the white in tail extends all the way to the tail tip visible in R5, R6 (left side) unlike the white windows not reaching the tail tip expected in Yellow-rumped Warbler. Other features do seem to fit with Grace's Warbler. This bird has bluish-gray upperparts, concolorous auricular merged with neck side, bicolored yellow (mostly) and white supercilium. The white tail markings also good for this species. Tail looks identical with a first-year female tail pattern illustrated in Curson et al. (1994). Warblers of the Americas, page 138. After looking through my photos I can see the left side of the tail has two outer rectrices with white extending to the tips. On the right side of the tail I can only find photos with one outer tail feather showing white to the tail tip. I suspect maybe it has lost a feather here perhaps? Once I refreshed my memory on Grace's Warbler call I think it also sounds pretty similar to the call of this species. I have to say when I saw it flitting around in the pine tree branch ends, probing among and holding on with its feet to bunches of needles, my gut feeling was a Grace's Warbler by behavior. A few more photographs can be found in a second checklist here https://ebird.org/checklist/S66753918

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D

Lens

EF400mm f/5.6L USM

ISO

5000

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/500 sec

Dimensions

1600 pixels x 1200 pixels

Original file size

569.08 KB