Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Immature Female - X
Media notes
Immature female Black-throated Green Warbler found on 4 october 2017 by Jim Pike and photographed here by Curtis A. Marantz on 5 October 2017 at Mile Square Regional Park, Fountain Valley, Orange County, California.
Observation details
We arrived at the park moments after others relocated the continuing bird that had been reported by Jim Pike the previous day, and as such, we walked up and were shown this bird as it foraged in the lower branches of a large eucalyptus tree in the northeastern part of the park. I studied this bird and took a few photos before it moved higher in the tree and eventually disappeared. This bird foraged actively amid the vegetation but it never made acrobatic flights and it often remained with the leaves. I heard this bird give at least two calls that sounded similar enough to the call of a Townsend’s Warbler that I probably could not have distinguished the two given the loud conditions at the park at the time. This was a medium-sized warbler with a short bill that was not as slim as those of some warblers and with a subtly decurved culmen and a pointed tip. I thought the forehead was sloping and the crown smoothly rounded on a head of unremarkable size. The neck was short and inconspicuous, but the body was relatively slim for a warbler. The tail was slim, of medium-length for a warbler, and with a tip that was jagged. The legs were unremarkable for a warbler in both their length and mass. This was a well-marked bird yet it was not as boldly patterned as a male of the species and its coloration was somewhat muted, though this may have reflected the fact that we saw it only in the shade. I am not sure I ever saw the forehead, but the crown, scapulars, and whatever I could see of the back were a dark green in color and without any obvious pattern, but given that I saw this bird only from below, I never saw the middle of the back. Demarcating the lower part of the green crown was a yellow supercilium that appeared to extend from the base of the bill through the supraloral region, over the eye, and then back along the upper edge of the auriculars to their rear terminus and a little beyond. Complementing the yellow supercilium was similar coloration in the submoustachial region and on the sides the neck, which served to encircle the dark olive surround to the auriculars. I further noted what appeared to be a dark wedge in the lores, a yellow crescent under the eye, and what appeared to be some lighter coloration in the center of the auriculars. Although the chin, throat, and center of the breast were whitish, or maybe a creamy-white, there was a bit of dusky-gray to blackish smudging that produced a broad wedge at the side of the throat that appeared to connect with blurry streaking of this same color that extended down the flanks. The belly, undertail coverts, and the background color of the flanks were the same creamy-whitish color as the throat. I failed to note in the field if this bird had a yellow strap across the vent, but my photos seemed to show at least some yellow in this region. The tail when seen from below was white centrally but with blackish borders that appeared to represent the outer webs of the outer rectrices when seen from below. I further thought the inner webs of the outer feathers were white to the tip so the pattern was one of striping and not conspicuous tail-spots. The wings contrasted as somewhat darker than the back, with the ground color a rather dark shade of gray to blackish, but with white tips of medium-width on both the greater and median coverts that produced two wingbars that extended straight across the wing and narrow edges of gray to the greater coverts that resulted in a pattern of fine striping between the wingbars. The remiges again appeared rather dark in color and they too had narrow edges of light gray that gave the rear part of the wing a finely striped appearance. The bill appeared to be entirely dark, the eyes were dark, and my recollection is that the legs were also dark.
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS 7D Mark II
- Lens
- EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM
- ISO
- 1600
- Focal length
- 400 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire, auto
- f-stop
- f/6.3
- Shutter speed
- 1/640 sec
- Dimensions
- 2522 pixels x 1668 pixels
- Original file size
- 8.75 MB