ML44503501

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

We were in the middle of our third day of light E to SE winds and high overcast, and experiencing a rather impressive wave of migrants on the island. Matt first located this bird at 12:30 PM up at the top of Lighthouse Hill. I quickly ran up the hill, but the bird disappeared before I got to the top. I spent much of the rest of the afternoon being in the wrong place at the wrong time to see this bird, but Jim eventually located it at North Landing, where I caught up to it around 4 PM. I relocated the bird after Jim left and watched it feed in a small plant next to the boathouse for about twenty minutes. A Blackpoll Warbler eventually joined the Connecticut, and they fed together for some time before moving around the side of the house. During this time I was between 8-10 feet away from the bird and it was completely oblivious to my presence. I was able to get a number of photos and video of the bird through my binoculars. Description: This bird was a large and incredibly chunky, large-headed, wood warbler. In comparison to the nearby Blackpoll Warbler it appeared to about the same length, but rather larger bodied. The back, wings (including flight feather edgings), tail, nape, sides of the neck, and crown were olive green. The auriculars were grayish-green, extending just above the eye, and fading into a buff throat. The eye right was thin, white, and nearly complete, being slightly broken behind the eye. The buff of the throat extended slightly onto the upper chest and then faded into a pale olive, complete chest band. This chest band extended down from the sides of the neck and was contiguous with the olive green of the back. An olive wash extended down the length of the flanks. The rest of the chest below the chest band, and the belly, were yellow. That yellow color blended into the flanks and chest band. The undertail coverts were slightly paler yellow than the belly. The eye was black. The bill was rather short and thick for a warbler, pale flesh on the basal half, and dark on the outer half. The legs were dark flesh. The primary projection was quite long, and approximately the same length as the very long undertail coverts. The tail was rather short, only extending past the undertail coverts about the same length as the primary projection, or perhaps slightly shorter than the primary projection. The bird did not call. The bird had a curious habit of walking, one step in front of the other. However it did not do this all the time, and when it moved quickly it did so in long hops. When walking, its head moved in a sort of bobbing motion, vaguely reminiscent of the manner in which game birds and doves walk. Discussion: Although this is a rather tough identification under most circumstances, this bird was incredibly cooperative (once I found it), and allowed for incredibly close study. No other predominantly olive and yellow warblers, other than Mourning and MacGillivray’s, are so large, with grayish heads, and some sort of eye ring. MacGillivray’s shows eye arcs (not an eye ring) and Mourning shows either thin eye arcs or no eye arcs. Both those species have shorter undertail coverts, longer tails, very different structure, and neither walks. This is approximately the 105th record for California and the 60th record for Southeast Farallon Island.

Technical information

Model

COOLPIX P5100

ISO

64

Focal length

12.9 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/3.5

Shutter speed

2/171 sec

Dimensions

2116 pixels x 1587 pixels

Original file size

2.44 MB