ML273667851

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

[Notes by TAB] I first saw this bird in the pines adjacent to the parking lot at the east end of the cemetery, and thought it looked unusual for a warbler, being rather drab overall. It flew around to different pines, but I eventually got a somewhat better look and could see that the yellow wash on the throat extended down onto the breast, with the lower belly and under tail coverts being white, but the under parts appearing otherwise unmarked (no visible streaking), indicating that it was not a Yellow-rumped Warbler. The overall yellowish wash to the under parts at first made me think Blackpoll Warbler, as the bird had two white wing bars on each wing, and large white spots on the underside of the folded tail. When I saw the head, however, the bird had visible pale (they may have been whitish or yellowish, but I seem to recall that they were whitish) eye arcs, but rather contrasting dark auriculars that reminded me of the face pattern of a female Black-throated Blue or Magnolia Warbler. At this point I was rather perplexed, but David, who was standing near me as I was following the bird, saved me from my confusion by tentatively identifying it as a Pine Warbler. At that point the bird flew to the pines at the north end of the parking lot, and all four of us were eventually able to get on the bird, and get reasonable views as it foraged among the pines, but moved widely around the eastern end of the cemetery (and frustratingly within 15 meters of San Bernardino County airspace). After about 20 minutes of following and photographing (but mostly looking for and not seeing) this warbler, we lost track of it in the very northeastern corner of the cemetery. Based on our views and photos, we were able to confirm its identity as a Pine Warbler. Noted or photographed field marks included: the yellow wash to the throat and breast, with white belly and under tail coverts; faint dusky streaking on the sides of the breast (visible in photos); long tail with white "spots" extending almost the entire length of the exposed tail feathers; two white wing bars; split eye ring or eye arcs; and heavy, spike-like bill. As noted earlier, the face pattern did seem unusually dark for a Pine Warbler, however, the shape and extent of the dark lores and auriculars is consistent with this species, just darker than expected.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 50D

ISO

100

Focal length

300 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.0

Shutter speed

1/500 sec

Dimensions

464 pixels x 573 pixels

Original file size

200.11 KB