Yep, that's it! While I haven't found any quite as weird as the bird I
saw, the mask definitely seems identical to several, and one shows small
blotches on the upper breast.
Thanks, Jay!
Alicia
On 5/14/2014 11:59 AM, Jay McGowan wrote:
Hi Alicia,
Warbler hybrids do occur, but in general they are less frequent (or at
least less frequently reported) than in some other groups, such as
ducks. The exception of course is Blue-winged x Golden-winged crosses,
which are seen quite frequently, especially in this part of the world.
The bird you describe sounds to me like an immature male American
Redstart, which look essentially identical to females their first year
but often look blotchily transitional their second. I just saw a
similar looking bird to what you describe at Sapsucker Woods, mostly
like a female redstart but with a small black mask and blotchy black
markings on the body. Take a look at some photos on the web and see if
that seems reasonable for what you saw.
-Jay
On Wed, May 14, 2014 at 11:52 AM, Alicia Plotkin t...@zoom-dsl.com
mailto:t...@zoom-dsl.com wrote:
Hi,
As often happens after storms in May, we had a bunch of
warblers in our yard this morning, and I just got in from four
hours of watching them. (Since the part of our yard involved is
only about an acres, this is a lot of time - partly it was birdy,
partly it's hard to come in when there is anything at all to watch
or hear.) One bird definitely was not a standard issue warbler,
but I don't have a camera so am reduced to looking at other
people's pictures, although it was extremely cooperative and
staying in clear view at or a little above eye level for 20
minutes and may still be there for all I know! (But my neighbors
with cameras have all gone to work.) It seemed redstart-ish in
many ways - size, feeding patterns, songs variable and generally
w/i the redstart spectrum - and it also in many ways was like a
female redstart in overall color. However, the tail had a bit
less yellow, it had a single short and very slim buffy wingbar,
and, most peculiarly, it s head had a greyish cast and also a
black mask that extended to the eyes. It had the same yellow
shoulder patches but it also had a fairly large blotch of black on
it's upper breast that was slightly off center to the left, where
it met the yellow patch, but didn't extend nearly as far to the
right; and a much smaller blotch a bit below that and on the
right, with one or two very short vertical black lines below that
smaller blotch. The rest of the chin and breast, all the way to
the tail, were white.
I don't really expect anyone to recognize this bird from this
description, but if you could point me toward a resource with
photos. I'd be much obliged.
Alicia
oob in Ovid
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