Hi Judd, Interesting bird. Some of these birds are quite difficult to ID to subspecies. I believe that this bird is a Western Palm Warbler. There is a large amount of variation in both Western and Yellow Palm Warblers and the extent of yellow on the underparts is particularly variable in spring. A fair number of Western Palm Warblers are this yellow below. I would look more at the color of the nape and wings, which would be more strongly olive in Yellow Palm Warbler. The back of the auricular should be more yellowish, or at the very least a bit more olive. Yellow Palms also should show more extensive chestnut streaking on the sides of the breast (versus the brownish streaking on this bird).
I will let someone more well-versed in MN distribution comment on the number of records, but I think you were certainly correct to get photos of this bird. I would think a Yellow Palm Warbler would be exceptional in Minnesota given the breeding range, and would probably best be documented with photos. Cool bird. Thanks for posting. It's great to have people looking so critically at these. Best Chris Wood eBird & Neotropical Birds Project Leader Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York http://ebird.org http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 12:40 PM, Judd Zandstra <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm not sure if this sighting is unusual of not. According to eBird there > have been no sightings in Minnesota and MOU doesn't list this subspecies > separately. Guides I consulted give the yellow subspecies range as eastern > US and Canada. The Western/Brown subspecies is pretty common but would > this be unusual in Minnesota? > > Photo: > http://www.flickr.com/photos/**juddz/7144938059/<http://www.flickr.com/photos/juddz/7144938059/> > > Judd Zandstra > Shoreview, Ramsey County, MN > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net: > http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/**wa?SUBED1=mou-net<http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net> > Archives: > http://lists.umn.edu/archives/**mou-net.html<http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html> > ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
