ML619253830

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Size and shape like Warbling, but gray above, white below from chin to vent, very faint thin white wingbar, low contrast white eye arcs. Pinkish bill. No olive tones that I could discern in harsh midday light. Flew in here: 37.495306067539914, -121.98204668367842 and started loudly singing its scratchy-scribbly song, then worked its way through the oaks until I caught up to it at the picnic tables. Lost it when I got distracted by an unidentified animal snarling in the marsh. Could hear it intermittently throughout visit. On the return trip it was singing in the marsh 37.49498032989635, -121.98137920832785 generally staying lower and moving around a fair bit. additional notes: per David Yee's 2006 list "The Least Bells Vireo (a subspecies of Bells Vireo) also was formerly common as a summer nester in the Central Valley. They were extirpated by the 1940s from the effects of habitat destruction and cowbird parasitism. " Aside from that report, there seem to have only been a handful of other birds in Sacramento Co (2010-2013), 1 from 2017 in San Joaquin Co, a couple in Stanislaus Co (2007, 2012, and 2016), bayside San Mateo (2010), and of course the Contra Costa delta records (1995 and 2018-2023). I haven't looked into records from further South yet, and I need to check more carefully, but records from SF (2005 GGP; Farallon Is 2009, 2016), Point Reyes (1976, 1984, 1992), Bodega Bay, and Santa Clara (2019) all appear to be vagrant Eastern subspecies. Hopefully we can collectively keep an eye on this bird and see how long it sticks around.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D7500

Lens

300.0 mm f/4.0

ISO

100

Focal length

300 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/7.1

Shutter speed

1/640 sec

Dimensions

1600 pixels x 1066 pixels

Original file size

1015.29 KB