ML30865161

Age and sex

Unknown age, Male - X

Media notes

Kentucky Warbler, Galileo Park, Kern County, California, 16 May 2010, Tom M. Edell

Observation details

adult male, singing. While stopped by the bathrooms between the trailers and the lake Maggie Smith spotted a warbler on the lawn behind the building that I identified as a Kentucky Warbler. It was walking on the ground and then flew across the lawn to the lake where it bathed and then flew to a tree where it allowed photos while preening. It then flew to behind the bathrooms again and then across the road and into rows of oleander separating the trailer spaces. Amazingly, none of us noticed the bird had no tail during our observations. No idea how we missed this fact while it was in flight, but when perched in the tree our views were obscured by leaves and branches which may account for not noticing the missing tail. Most of our looks were of the bird facing us. When I first saw the bird I recognized it from past experience with the species. It was bright yellow below and green above and had no wing bars or streaking on the breast or back.. The striking face pattern was the most noticeable feature. It had a bright yellow supercilium that wrapped around behind the eye, a black line between the eye and the bill, black under the eye that broadened toward the neck and extended down the side of the neck separating the yellow throat from the green shoulder. The sides of the crown were black and the black extending into the otherwise green crown. The bill and eye looked black and the feet were a carmine pink. It sang at least twice while in view. The loud song was composed of two syllables repeated over and over five times.

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot A590 IS

ISO

160

Focal length

23.2 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.5

Shutter speed

1/250 sec

Dimensions

1428 pixels x 1062 pixels

Original file size

72.62 KB