ML550295591

Age and sex

Adult Female - 1

Media notes

Wintering, female Cape May Warbler initially found the previous winter by Brennan Mulrooney, and relocated this season on 1 January 2023 by Calvin Bonn and Lisa Fimiani, here photographed by Curtis A. Marantz on 19 March 2023 at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California.

Observation details

I located the wintering warbler shortly after my arrival as it foraged among several Tipuana tipu trees growing on the west side of the mall just north of the traffic circle at Loyola Boulevard and Ignation Circle and in front of the Leband Art Gallery. Over the next two hours, I followed this bird around as it foraged actively among the three southernmost Tipu trees, though it briefly visited a Sweet Gum a short way to the west. Although the warbler seemed to spend almost its entire time in these trees, I lost track of it for about the last 15-20 minutes of my visit, suggesting that it flew somewhere else. While in view, this bird moved all about the trees from roughly three meters above the ground to the canopies of the trees, which were probably eight to ten meters tall, and it foraged among the leaf clusters, often hanging downward at the ends of the branches. Although this bird was relatively easy to find, it was difficult to photograph or to study for extended periods because it rarely stopped moving, and it was invariably seen over my head. I never saw this bird drop to the lawn as did four Yellow-rumped Warblers at one point. Moreover, the Cape May was one of few birds in these trees during most of my visit, in part because it chased away just about any other bird in these trees. The warbler called periodically, giving a sharp, but also slightly buzzy, “tzeet” call that was also of high frequency and relatively loud. This was a medium-sized warbler that appeared somewhat smaller than the Yellow-rumped Warblers that it often chased away, but it was larger than a Ruby-crowned Kinglet that I saw in the same trees. I further suspect it was similar in size to a Townsend’s Warbler, none of which I saw at this site. This bird was also rather plump overall, with a compact body, long wings, and a relatively short tail. The bill was quite slim and of medium length for a warbler. I further noted that it tapered to a finely pointed tip, but I did not see much curvature, and I thought it would have extended backward on the face to a point near the rear edge of the eye. The forehead was weakly sloping and the crown was gently rounded and seemingly with a flatter appearance to the crown than I noted on the Yellow-rumped Warblers. The relative size of the head was probably not unlike that of a Townsend’s Warbler. The neck was short and inconspicuous, and the body was plump, full-chested, and with a posture that was maybe not quite diagonal with the tail held downward in the plane of the body when the bird perched normally. The wings were rather long, with the tapered wingtips reaching right to the tips of the undertail coverts, which themselves reached about halfway out the tail. I thought the primary projection was at least half the length of the exposed secondaries, but I thought they were probably longer even though I did not see this overly well. I thought the tail was about as long as the body without the head and neck, and I noted that it was subtly flared distally and with a weakly double-rounded tip. The legs were slim and of unremarkable length for an arboreal warbler. This was a well-marked bird, but the coloration was relatively dull for a warbler. I thought the forehead and crown were medium-gray, though possibly with a subtle cast of olive and dusky markings that were indistinct, and a bit blurry in character, but I was not sure if they appeared more like streaks or mottling. Demarcating the darker cap was a pale supercilium that was narrow, but relatively well-defined, as it extended from the base of the upper mandible through the supraloral region, over the eye, and back along the upper edge of the auriculars, seemingly to their rear terminus and possibly a short way beyond. I thought the supercilium was a relatively pale yellowish in color. Demarcating the supercilium below was a dusky loral-stripe that connected the base of the bill with the front edge of the eye, but behind the eye, I noted an auricular patch that was medium-gray and apparently without a darker frame or even upper border. Below the loral stripe, the submoustachial region was cream colored back to about the eye, but behind the eye it became yellow, and this same golden-yellow to bronzy-yellow extended under the auricular patch to its rear terminus before curving upward behind to demarcate conspicuously the auriculars. The throat appeared to be cream-colored and not only was it was unmarked, but I did not see an obvious malar-stripe separating the throat from the submoustachial region. The upper breast, sides, flanks, and belly were cream colored, and extending across the upper breast was a band of dusky streaks that were short, but narrow, and relatively well-defined. These streaks were most tightly packed in the center of the upper breast, but somewhat less so at the sides, where they were also a bit longer. I noted two rows of somewhat more blurry streaks on the flanks that were not quite as dark as those on the breast and maybe more grayish, and also that the flanks had a pale grayish background. The streaks on the breast were limited to the upper part, leaving a narrow wedge on the lower breast unmarked. This wedge was also somewhat more yellow in color, though the yellow appeared to continue to the sides of the breast. The undertail coverts were long, tapered, and cream-colored, but without any markings. The underside of the tail was whitish in the center, but with a black border on either side that was narrow basally but expanding distally to cover the entire tip of the feather and pinching off the white before it reached the tip. Whereas the crown appeared more grayish, the mantle and scapulars were distinctly olive, and seemingly with dark streaking that was blurry and inconspicuous. The wings were only slightly darker than the back. I noted a narrow, yet relatively conspicuous, wedge of white extending across the tips of the median coverts to produce an obvious upper wingbar, but the paler fringes on the greater coverts were duller, maybe more yellowish or even buffy, and seemingly appearing as edges distally on the feathers rather than tips, and extending inward only a third to half of the way to the base. The result was a diffuse wingbar that was relatively inconspicuous. The primary coverts appeared as a small, dark wedge along the leading edge of the closed wing near the shoulder, but it was difficult to see any additional detail in the field. The remiges were dusky, and maybe a sooty-brown in color, but with each feather having a yellowish-olive to greenish-yellow edge that was broader on the innermost secondaries but quite narrow on the remaining feathers, well-defined on all of the feathers, and having a similar pattern on both the primaries and secondaries. I did not see the exposed wingtips at all well, but what I saw appeared rather dark and lacking much of a pattern. The rump was distinctly yellowish, but it was more poorly defined that that on a Yellow-rumped Warbler and maybe not as purely yellow. The upperside of the tail was dark, and it lacked obvious contrast with the wings, but I failed to note any further detail. The bill appeared to be entirely dark, but it would likely have been hard to see a paler base. The eyes were likewise dark, and I again failed to see any additional detail on the color, but I did think the legs and feet appeared to be rather blackish in color.

Technical information

Model

ILCE-7RM5

Lens

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

ISO

1600

Focal length

600 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/1000 sec

Dimensions

3564 pixels x 2250 pixels

Original file size

10.55 MB