ML619047038
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
This bird representing Los Angeles County's first record (and second for California) was first found on 12 May by Jake Xia and seen by dozens of birders since then. It had been refound this morning before I arrived and its persistent singing was audible almost as soon as I got out of my car. It spend most of its time on the north side of the road high in the sycamore trees where it was essentially invisible. At one point it flew high into some pine trees on the other side of the road and I could at least tell that there was a warbler body attached to the songs. It returned to the sycamores where I got a few brief looks, but eventually spent much time in another group of pine trees on the north side of the road near the restroom building -- it was here that I was able to get lots of good scope views. The bird would sing every 5-10 seconds, almost throughout my stay (with a couple of breaks of just a minute or two). Continuously singing in sycamores, oaks and planted pines in the canyon. The song consisted of several short sweet introductory notes, a short rapid buzzy trill, and ending with two or three inflected sweet notes. The buzzy portion was reminiscent of a Northern Parula’s buzz, but shorter and incorporated into a more musical and complex song. In structure the songs were amazingly similar to some of the songs of nearby Yellow Warblers, the main difference being that the Yellows replaced the buzzy trill with a rapid series of sweet notes and the ending of their songs had a bit more “oomph.” DESCRIPTION: For much of my visit I struggled to get any looks at the bird as it sang and presumably also foraged high in the sycamores, completely obscured by leaves. When it later spent much time in the more open foliage of the tall pine trees I was able to see it well and even observe and follow it with my scope. The following description is based on those views (and to a slight extent on my photos, though they were poor). Crown, hindneck, and lower back deep blue-gray, contrasting with the yellow-green patch that covered most of the back. The blue-gray crown blended into the blackish face and auricular area, which contrasted sharply with the deep, bright yellow throat. There was no trace of white around the eyes. The dark of the side of the face and neck did not invade the yellow throat and chest at all, quite unlike the pattern on a Northern Parula. The yellow of the throat deepened to orange in a wash through the center of the chest and (more subtly) down through the breast. The sides and flanks were yellowish but the vent area and undertail coverts were whitish. From below the medium-short tail (though seemingly longer than the tail of a Northern Parula) was mostly white, with black across the tip. The dark wings (dark, dull blue-gray) were punctuated with broad white tips to the median and greater coverts which formed two thick white wingbars. [This is consistent with the pattern expected of the west Mexican subspecies pulchra.] The wingbars were wider than the dark space between them, but did not join to form a solid white patch. The legs were dull pinkish brown; the bill appeared dark above but the mandible was entirely yellow-orange. The bird was not seen immediately next to any other warblers, but looked to be on the small side with only a medium-length tail. It was clearly smaller than a Warbling Vireo that was next to it at one point. This is the 44th species of parulid to be found in Los Angeles County. The only two species on the state list that have not been found in the county are the (overdue) Louisiana Waterthrush and the Golden-cheeked Warbler.
Technical information
- Model
- DSC-RX10M4
- ISO
- 100
- Focal length
- 168 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/5.0
- Shutter speed
- 1/400 sec
- Dimensions
- 756 pixels x 504 pixels
- Original file size
- 47.66 KB