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Posted by Trey on 14:44:26 04/30/06
In Reply to: Re: Cape Florida: Female Townsend's Warbler posted by John Boyd
OK,
I didn't say the light was bad, I just said the light. The bird was actually in the light. I was looking through the sea grape about 15 feet where the bird was obscured by a tangle of leaves on the opposite side of the sea grape. It would come in and out of view with portions of the bird showing at a time.
The reason for Comparison to the Blackburnian wasn't the Black, but the facial features, mainly the amount of contrast between the dark auricular and the yellow on the face.
I wish the bird would have been an adult male, but it wasn't. For it to have been a Black Throated Green it would have had to be a female, but in all the photos of female BT Greens, I have found the auricular is far to pale for the bird I saw. If it was a BT Green male it would have had a Black Throat, which it didn't. There was some black on the throat area but not solid black or even mostly black it was more yellow or at least 50% yellow - 50% Black. Maybe the term I should use is flecked.
In my mind I said the back was black with yellow streaking, using in my head a comparison to the back of a BT Greens, which to me appears to be greenish. Maybe the back was actually several shades of gray lighter than actual Blackburnian Black, but my first impression was black.
I also noted 2 distinct white wing bars and yellow on the "sides" not "flanks" with some streaking. I'm sorry that I miss communicated this, but when I looked a my Sibley's a few minutes ago I noticed that the area for the flank is actually only lower on the bird than I thought in my initial description. I should had said "sides" according to my Sibley's.
I said all of this to say, I know it wasn't a BT Green, unless it was an aberrant male without a black throat and a darker than normal auricular with yellow streaking visible on the back and yellow sides and under the throat a little yellow as well.
Don't you just love a good debate...
I sure wish someone else would have had as good a look at the bird as I had, but they didn't. Let me know if my missappropriating the use of "flank" makes any difference to your suggestion that the bird was a BT Green. I realize this bird doesn't belong here, nor was the habitat appropriate, but I am also aware that it is not unheard of and that one was confirmed in the same area last Fall.
Did you get a photo of the Blackburnian at AD Barnes???? I was really hoping you got a good one. It was a really beautiful bird.
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