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This is a tough one to ID.
Orange-crowned warblers migrate through our area but so do Tennessee warblers and the latter is far more common than the former. The two species look very similar—fairly nondescript—but Eliot knew the telling diagnostic field mark.
Eliot is young and talented, blessed with a remarkable acumen for birding: eye for detail, ear for nuance and an ability to develop encyclopedic knowledge of any subject that interests her, in this case birding. And most importantly, she has the capacity to get excited to the point of becoming overjoyed about a pretty plain-Jane songbird. But treasure is treasure.
Also like any good birder, she had the patience to wait it out until the austere passerine she found in the trees above the apartment she shares with her mother, revealed its titillating secrets, which warblers do with great reticence. Eliot watched long enough to clearly see that the undertail coverts were yellow (as are the orange-crowned) and not white (as is the undercarriage of the Tennessee.)
Eliot is young and talented, blessed with a remarkable acumen for birding: eye for detail, ear for nuance and an ability to develop encyclopedic knowledge of any subject that interests her, in this case birding. And most importantly, she has the capacity to get excited to the point of becoming overjoyed about a pretty plain-Jane songbird. But treasure is treasure.
Also like any good birder, she had the patience to wait it out until the austere passerine she found in the trees above the apartment she shares with her mother, revealed its titillating secrets, which warblers do with great reticence. Eliot watched long enough to clearly see that the undertail coverts were yellow (as are the orange-crowned) and not white (as is the undercarriage of the Tennessee.)
And in case you are wondering, the orange patch on the noggin is not easy to see; it's really only obvious if you are holding the bird in your hand.
1 comment:
A lovely little bird, actually. I was confused by a tiny little bird coming to my hummingbird feeders and for the longest time couldn't identify it (mostly because I had back-lighting where the feeders hang and I couldn't see the coloration. The bird was larger than a hummingbird but smaller than anything else I see regularly (like the sparrows and finches). He would hang upside down sometimes on the feeder, and he never lingered long. When I finally caught a glimpse of his coloration, I could see a very pale light green on the upper area of his chest, and otherwise his body was a light grey. He looks a little like this warbler, but with not as much yellow. I looked him up and decided he must be a warbling vireo. I had never even heard of a warbling vireo and was very pleased to see that this new species for me is a regular visitor to my porch!
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