tags: Orange-crowned Warbler, Vermivora celata, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Orange-crowned Warbler, Vermivora celata, photographed in Allen Williams Yard, Pharr, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 2 April 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/60s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
It's a yellow warbler -- but it's not a Yellow Warbler. Note that this is a relatively long-tailed, short-winged bird, just the opposite in rear proportions of the species for which it is most often mistaken. Moving forward, we find yellow undertail coverts, a plain wing, some faint streaking on the lower breast, and a decided gray cast to the head. And to pin the identification down fast, the bird looks "mean": the narrow eyering is broken by a sinister black eyeline, and the bill is sharp and slightly downcurved. Nothing looks like this but an Orange-crowned Warbler, the most ferocious face in warblerdom.
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I think this is a female Orange-crowned Warbler. This plain bird has yellowish undertail coverts, a pale supercilium, a split eye-ring, it lacks wing-bars and has a palish mark found at the bend in the wing.
Yay! The mystery bird of the day is back! :-)
I'm calling that an Orange-crowned Warbler, based on the "short, dark eye-line", "broken eye-ring", and "yellow undertail coverts" (Sibley). I could also believe Tennessee Warbler, but I'm seeing no hints whatsoever of wingbars, and the markings on the face and the color on the undertail coverts both seem closer to Orange-crowned.
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GrrlScientist, I am very glad to see that you have returned.
I concur with Orange-crowned Warbler, because of the yellow undertail and faint streaking, and Vermivoraish bill.
ES @ 5 "Vermivoraish"
You made that word up.