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Which Warbler?


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I agree it probably looks good for a Tennessee (admittedly I don't know everything about this id challenge). For what it's worth, I have spotted quite a few lutescens (west coast) Orange-crowned's (or birds that I id'd as OCWA, maybe incorrectly, though they did have other OCWA traits) with supercilia approaching that (but maybe not quite as bold). Here's some photos of one of those birds (hopefully OP won't mind me posting my own photos here...)

ocwa1.jpg.24a45d9cbb6c562dab5c7258c3c70985.jpgocwa2.JPG.ef521dcccaa9d1eac3da5e30368fc806.JPG)

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Are those the same bird? Personally I'd lean Tennessee on the first one, and Orange-crowned on the second. I don't have experience with the lutescens subspecies, but I have quite a bit of experience with Tennessee's. That first picture is really playing with me, but overall the colour and face seem more Tennessee to me. Good discussion!

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I'm relatively certain they're the same bird--it stuck out as a bit unusual (from afar I actually thought it might be a very rare Philadelphia Vireo with that capped look and yellow throat) so I spent 30 minutes trying to get decent photos (those were the best, so, as you can imagine, the rest aren't too great.) It's possible I got bamboozled and there were actually 2 or more warblers (this was during fall migration and the foliage was pretty thick). Here's another shot of what I believed was the same bird, showing heavy streaking and quite yellow undertail coverts (so presumably an OCWA).

ocwa3.JPG.3640515523330ec23942fc7e320781ef.JPG

I would love to call one of the birds a Tennessee Warbler, as I have yet to see one out west. One field mark I've been relying on (especially on distant birds) is the yellow undertail coverts, and the fact that on many Tennessee Warblers the undertail coverts seem to extend quite close to the end of the tail, but I have yet to see any birds that clearly match that.

About lutescens, they definitely are a bit different from central / east coast subspecies by having a more uniform yellow look (though young birds can look grayer). I know what you mean about the central / east coast birds having a different head color (more gray). They occasionally show up out west (and usually get reported as 'Orange-crowned Warbler (Gray-headed)' on eBird since telling celata from orestera is pretty tricky). 

Not sure how often lutescens make it out east... might be interesting to check out.

Edited by tedsandyman
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/10/2018 at 7:37 PM, egosnell2002 said:

Are those the same bird? Personally I'd lean Tennessee on the first one, and Orange-crowned on the second. I don't have experience with the lutescens subspecies, but I have quite a bit of experience with Tennessee's. That first picture is really playing with me, but overall the colour and face seem more Tennessee to me. Good discussion!

The two photos are of the same bird photographed a few seconds apart as it moved around in the tree.

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