ML617411391

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Media notes

Continuing White Wagtail, present since initially found on 24 January 2024 by Eric Johnson, here photographed by Curtis A. Marantz on 13 April 2024, along the Los Angeles River above Buena Vista park, Burbank, Los Angeles County, California.

Observation details

I located the continuing wagtail this morning downstream from Fairview Street, from which it worked its way down to Buena Vista Park, where it remained for a short time before vanishing when I briefly took my eyes off it. While under observation, the wagtail foraged actively on the concrete floor of the river channel often, but not always, near locations where the shallow water flooded the concrete. The wagtail spent most of its time walking rapidly, stopping occasionally, and picking at the surface for what appeared to be small prey items, some of which it was seen to consume. It pumped its tail regularly while foraging. I thought I heard only one or two “pip” calls when this bird flew, but the sound environment in this area was not good for hearing a relatively soft call from some distance. Although the wagtail typically moved by walking, at times rather rapidly, and covering long distances on foot, it did fly several times, including one flight downstream across an expanse of open water. This was a small passerine that appeared much like a pipit in its overall size and shape. I thought this bird’s body was somewhat smaller and slimmer than those of the Northern Rough-winged Swallows that were seen in direct comparison. The bill was straight, relatively short, and slim throughout its length. I further thought the bill tapered little from a base of medium depth to a tip that was pointed, but not finely so, and that the bill would have extended backward on the face to a point maybe midway across the auriculars. The forehead was gently sloping and the crown was rounded with a subtle peak above and a little behind the eye, all on a head that would have been unremarkable in size for a pipit. The neck was relatively short and inconspicuous, and the body was plump, full-chested, and with a posture that was closer to horizontal than diagonal with the tail generally held weakly downward in the plane of the body. I thought the wings were relatively short, in that they appeared to fall just short of the tips of the uppertail coverts, and in which I noted almost no primary projection whatsoever. My views of the bird in flight were brief and never very good, but what I did see appeared to be medium-length wings that were broad basally and broadly pointed distally. The tail was approximately as long as the head, neck, and body combined, if not just a little longer. I further noted that the tail was slim throughout its length, parallel-sided when held closed, and apparently with a square tip. The legs were slim but seemingly also rather long, and the toes were slim. This was a well-marked bird, but one with plumage patterns that represented exclusively shades of gray, black, and white. The head was well marked, with a white forehead and supercilium that contrasted with a gray cap, a dark eyeline, white on the lower part of the face, and a black throat. More specifically, the forehead was white, but with some grayish clouding, from the base of the upper mandible up to a sharp line of demarcation that cut straight across the junction of the forehead and crown above and a little before the eye. Extending from the white forehead, the crown was medium-gray back to the nape and down the back and sides of the neck. I saw a small, black fleck amid the gray just behind the white forehead, but I did not see obvious black markings anywhere else on the crown, nape, or neck. Connecting with the whitish forehead was a supercilium that extended back through the supraloral region, over the eye, and back along the upper edge of the auriculars before tapering to a point near their rear terminus, and much like the forehead, the supercilium appeared to have some gray clouding. Demarcating the lower edge of the supercilium was a narrow transocular-stripe that connected the base of the bill with the eye through the lores, but also continuing behind the eye along the upper edge of the auriculars, seemingly to their rear terminus. The loral stripe appeared to be blackish and it was not quite as deep as the eye, and the postocular was again blackish but even finer and appearing as a very narrow, ye well-defined, stripe. The lower part of the face, including the moustachial, submoustachial, and auricular regions were whitish, but again with a clouded appearance. Sharply demarcating the white on the lower part of the face was a black that appeared to extend from the chin down across the entire throat and onto the upper breast before ending in a curved edge on the lower breast. The upper edge of black appeared to extend through the malar region out to the outer corners of the throat, but then curving as a narrow projection back onto the side of the neck before the shoulder. This back extension of the throat demarcated the whitish face, but the whitish also encircled the black to further separate it from whitish that extended narrowly along the shoulder. The black on the breast did not continue onto the sides, which were washed with medium-gray, and as such the black breast-shield did not reach the shoulder. The sides of the breast and the foreflanks were conspicuously washed with gray, but the belly, most of the flanks, and apparently the undertail coverts were white. Returning to the upperparts, the mantle, scapulars, and rump were the same shade of medium-gray as the crown and back of the neck, and I saw no dark markings anywhere on the upperparts. This bird did regularly hold its wings far enough at the sides that I could see the rump much of the time, but I had a hard time seeing the uppertail coverts. What I could see around the wings appeared to be black, but I also noted some striking feathers on either side of the closed wings that sharply contrasted black on the inner part with white edges. I thought these were uppertail coverts, but I could not be sure. The upperside of the closed tail was black, but I saw a narrow white tip to the tail that was more conspicuous than I would have expected, potentially suggesting that the central feathers were not quite of full length. I also saw in the partially spread tail at one point that at least the outer two pairs of rectrices were mostly, if not entirely, white. The wings were boldly marked and with a somewhat different pattern on each side. On the right side, the median coverts showed a sharp contrast between black bases, and with the black extending in a subtle point outward along the shaft, with broad tips that were snow-white and extending straight across the tip of each feather apart from the weak blip at the shaft. The more elongate greater-coverts appeared to have dark gray inner-webs that contrasted with both a narrow fringe of light gray along the outer edge and relatively broad, white tip. The result was one of a sharply demarcated upper wingbar, a more diffuse lower wingbar, and a striped pattern between the two. On the left wing, I saw no black at the bases of the median coverts, on which the bases were either obscured or more extensively white than on the right wing. I also thought the greater coverts on the left wing were more evenly white and seemingly without the darker centers. The remiges were boldly striped, but varying somewhat among the various tracts. The innermost secondaries had blackish centers that contrasted with somewhat diffuse edges of light gray, but the remaining secondaries appeared to have better-defined and more purely white edges to feathers that were black internally. It was difficult to see the primaries in the closed wing, but what I could see appeared to contrast narrow, but again well-defined, edges of white with black centers. I thought the bill was entirely blackish, if not truly black, and I saw no obvious paling on the lower mandible. The eyes were dark. The legs and toes were dull blackish, and I suspect the claws were as well, but my recollection of them is not as good.

Technical information

Model

ILCE-7RM5

Lens

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

ISO

320

Focal length

600 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/500 sec

Dimensions

2002 pixels x 1222 pixels

Original file size

4.58 MB