ML35172551

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

CBRC #2016-076 Description: At 8:46AM my wife and I came upon a warbler foraging in the grass of the picnic area south of the main office. Upperparts were “olivish” but slightly grayer towards the head with little color contrast or a least a smooth transition. No wing-bars. Edges of primaries and secondaries tinged yellow matching the underpart’s color. From the side view we could see an incomplete but rather thin eyering which at the time struck me as thinner than what I see on MacGillivray’s and sometimes, depending on the angle of the head it appeared to be rather complete around the back of the eye; which the photos prove wrong. But the photos do show how far back the eyering goes. Also noticeable was how yellow the underparts were from the base of the bill all the way to the tail coverts without interruption. The yellow pushed into the malar area, then receded a bit at the shoulders which blurred to a blend of yellow and a bleed of the upperparts color. This same blending continued along the flanks widening near but falling short of the thighs. The bird never seemed to have a hooded look to it. The bird was silent the entire time. Similar species were Nashville, which would mean the eyering would be complete and on a distinctly gray head and common yellowthroat, a browner “upperparted” bird with dim eyering and both of which I didn’t think at the time would be completely yellow from bill to tail. More similar would be the MacGillivray’s Warbler. To separate I looked into my Sibley field guide and compared the first winter female drawing, notes and personal notes on page 451 or the 1st edition. While the Sibley’s guide does not depict a MacGillivray’s with any yellow on the throat, the throat seemed very yellow, the eyering or arcs were on the thin side and long. Sibley mentions the coverts in a rather obscure way but the photos we took indicated tail coverts passing the primary tips; in some photos more and in other photos less depending on the angles. I decided Mourning based on these observations and separations then made a call to begin to alert other birders. Please contact me if more information or details are required for satisfactory documentation.

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot SX60 HS

ISO

800

Focal length

247 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/6.5

Shutter speed

1/200 sec

Dimensions

700 pixels x 504 pixels

Original file size

416.82 KB