ML614868794

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

***Rare; virtually unreported from Westchester but the distribution of abieticola is poorly understood in Southern NY. A solid first eBird record for the county, but one that is well overdue since this ssp is gravely underreported/not ID’d. I write this report a full three years later (02/15/24), but I do remember being struck by the RTHA show at WPRR on this day. I had seen the aforementioned supremely pale borealis earlier in the morning, and so when I saw this bird I was struck by its darkness. It was initially spotted flying over the fields along Michigan Rd, before landing in a tree near the house on that road. Looking at this bird now, I realize this was a classic abieticola. It has rich and bold markings across the entirety of the chest; the streaking is globular and an intense mix of rufous and chestnut (and it’s not restricted in a sparsely marked band like we would seen on borealis). The head (as even in the flight photo) has a full bib that melts into the breast, producing the typical “dribbles” and creating a marked throat. Yet at the time, I wasn’t well-versed in my RTHA ssp, although I was pretty sure this wasn’t the usual borealis. In the years that have followed, I’ve seen a few beautiful abieticola specimens (including Patrick McKenzie’s famed one in Van Cortland Park) and I’ve continually thought back to this sighting. The main challenge with abieticola in Westchester is that there’s no precedent for them being found here. Abieticolas are known to wander South in winter, and in recent years there have been targeted efforts to census them in Orange Co. (and to a lesser extent Dutchess), where they’re seen in decent numbers. So while it’s reasonable that a few would make there way into Westchester every winter, especially in the Northern parts like Pound Ridge, the lack of records has always held me back from venturing on any subspecific ID without good documentation. Today, I thank 15yo me for taking photos of this “suspicious bird” as when I looked at the shots this afternoon, I was elated to see a stunner of an adult abieticola. Just to ensure I wasn’t turning a dark borealis into an abieticola, I checked this with the moderators of the Red-tails of the US Facebook page, and they confirmed it was certainly a light morph abieticola! So now, three years after the sighting, I’m extremely happy to give Westchester eBird its first report of an abieticola RTHA — and with documentation at that! Photos to come

Technical information

Model

NIKON D3500

ISO

800

Focal length

550 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/10.0

Shutter speed

1/1600 sec

Dimensions

1925 pixels x 1283 pixels

Original file size

866.58 KB