ML647243652

Observation details

Super uniform and unpatterned bird. I had to think about this one for a minute! Superficially like a drab OCWA or YEWA. The bird was mostly sitting with its feathers fluffed up, so the wing bars were not visible most of the time, making it basically uniformly dull yellow/brown overall including the undersides, head and upper sides from crown to rump. Tertials and primaries low contrast overall, medium gray at the centers, transitioning to the same dull yellow green at the edges on the primaries and secondaries. Secondaries gray with broad paler gray trips, forming a broad lower wing bar. Narrower but otherwise similar upper wing bar. The two broad pale gray but distinct wing bars ruled out the other drab yellow species. Undersides of tail uniformly dark gray (nearly black) with distinctive long white patches on the inner webs extending from all of the distal end and ending in a sharp point at proximal end about where the under tail coverts ended. No streaking above or below. Pointed rr make this a HY bird and maybe male given how bright the yellow is. Distinctive/diagnostic facial pattern with darker brownish-yellow crown, and darker brownish yellow cheek narrowly connected to dark lores, contrasting with pale “headlights”, distinct thin and uniform supercilium, upper and lower eye arcs, throat and sides of neck. Eye black. Bill large and thick (for a tree-dwelling warbler), mostly pale gray/flesh, with darker culmen and tip rules out a very drab CMWA. Legs and feet black. First seen by the porta potty where the main entrance road intersects the north-south park road. It was preening and waking up and I watched it for several minutes preening. Then it flew across the soccer field to the west into the trees and I lost it. I never heard it make any sounds. Associated with western bluebirds, AMGO, Audubon’s warblers and sparrows. (34.0474811, -118.0661208)