ML526809801

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Media notes

Wintering Townsend's Solitaire, initially found on 27 December 2022 by Paul Fenwick, here photographed by Curtis A. Marantz on 20 January 2023 at the Monterey Peninsula College, Monterey, Monterey County, California.

Observation details

Continuing; first found by Paul Fenwick 12/27/22 After almost an hour of searching, Carratello finally found the continuing solitaire when it flew into a large pine near the Lecture Forum where it was typically seen the bird dropped down into its favored juniper shortly after I first saw it, but we relocated it shortly later foraging midway up in the fruiting juniper, where it remained for a short time before it flew off to the west and disappeared. We never heard this bird call. My views of this bird were generally good, but its position was such that I did not see the rear part of the bird so well. This was a relatively small passerine that was somewhat smaller and slimmer-bodied than the American Robins that we saw on the same tree. The bill was conspicuously short, in that it would have extended backward on the face only to the eye. The bill was also relatively slim and blunt-tipped, with the culmen curving downward at the tip. The forehead was sloping and the crown was smoothly rounded on a head that appeared smaller than those of the robins. Contributing to the different structure of the bird, the neck was shorter and stouter than those of the robins, and the body was slimmer though also appearing full-chested. The posture was less upright than I expect from this species. I was unable to see clearly either the primary projection or the wing length, and apart from noting that the tail was at least relatively long, I largely failed to see its length or shape. The undertail coverts also appeared to be relatively long. I cannot recall seeing anything on the legs or feet. This bird was mostly gray in coloration, with the head, neck, back and underparts almost entirely uniformly medium-gray with few internal markings apparent. This said the white eyering was relatively narrow, round, and well-defined. I also thought the undertail coverts were paler than the belly, which was the same shade as the throat, breast, sides, and flanks. I never did see the underside of the tail clearly. Whereas the back was about the same shade of gray as the head, neck, and underparts, the wings were darker, appearing more sooty-gray to dull blackish. The coverts generally appeared rather plain, yet I noted a barrow, but relatively well-defined band that extended across the tips of the greater coverts to produce a narrow and relatively inconspicuous wingbar.. the most consistently marked part of the bird was the remiges, which had both a generally striped pattern and a narrow wedge of dull orange to orange-buff that I thought was on the middle secondaries in the middle part of the closed wing. I also noted some pale gray to whitish striping on the inner secondaries, but I was unable to make out in the field the details of the pattern, and I have even less recollection about the pattern on the primaries (not to mention that I never clearly saw the wingtips. I also failed to see clearly the pattern on the rump or the upperside of the tail. The bill was black, and the eyes were sufficiently dark as to appear effectively black in the field, but as noted above, I cannot recall ever seeing the legs or feet.

Technical information

Model

ILCE-7RM5

Lens

FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS

ISO

800

Focal length

600 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/125 sec

Dimensions

4553 pixels x 2842 pixels

Original file size

10.82 MB