blurry fly aways

[insanityslave]

all birds seen today in central nc at Pee Dee NWR.

the first photo seems to me to be a... yellow bird. ... but seriously, if i *have* to make a guess, id say palm warbler. but thats a shot in the dark.

its possible the 2nd pic is the same bird... hard to say there were definitely a few 'yellow birds' around that i was unfamiliar with and which would not sit still. if i had to guess by just the pic id say pine warbler, but i usually dont take pics of them, and having found the northern parula in the area, i suppose it may be that too... or something completely different.

3rd bird i believe is a swamp sparrow. seems to be maybe ugly or molting (or both) so i just wanna verify.

Thanks!

[Mark5]

3rd Looks like a regular Swamp Sparrow to me.

[Jefferson Shank]

1. Pine Warbler
2. Swamp Sparrow

[Inastrangeland]

Here are my guesses:

1. I like Pine Warbler on this one too.

2. How about a Tennessee Warbler?  The white on the under tail coverts has me leaning that way.

3. Yep, Swamp sparrow.  They usually look a bit ragged.

Love the title of the thread.  We've all been there.

[Charlie Spencer]

I'm not sure about Pine on #1.  The entire underside appears to be yellow, including the belly and vent where I'd expect white.

The tail isn't much help, but Palm Warbler, maybe?

[insanityslave]

2 hours ago, Charlie Spencer said:

I'm not sure about Pine on #1.  The entire underside appears to be yellow, including the belly and vent where I'd expect white.

thats what i was thinking. but im also a bit in doubt about the colors we see in the pic and the colors that were actually there... after all there is a lot of blurring going on.

i KNOW there were a handful of lifers there yesterday, ive already id'd about 4 of them and now am trying to do one from memory as it was flighty and i couldnt get pics.  the issue is there are a ton of birds like this in this area during this time of year, making an otherwise moderate-to-easy deduction more difficult.

[insanityslave]

4 hours ago, Inastrangeland said:

Here are my guesses:

1. I like Pine Warbler on this one too.

2. How about a Tennessee Warbler?  The white on the under tail coverts has me leaning that way.

3. Yep, Swamp sparrow.  They usually look a bit ragged.

Love the title of the thread.  We've all been there.

fwiw, tennessee warbler isnt common in that area and according to bar charts, has been seen only in the fall. not saying it cant happen, just saying i dont have the kind of luck. the only rare birds i see are in zoos! lol

https://ebird.org/barchart?r=L358792&yr=all&m=

 

[Nivalis]

4 hours ago, Charlie Spencer said:

I'm not sure about Pine on #1.  The entire underside appears to be yellow, including the belly and vent where I'd expect white.

The tail isn't much help, but Palm Warbler, maybe?

I was thinking palm was a possibility on bird #1 as well

[Tony Leukering]

The yellow under-tail coverts on bird #1 rule out Pine. The lack of obvious white tail spots also do that job. However, they do it for Palm, too; but even more so. I'd go with Yellow, as I believe that I see yellow tail spots. I'm a bit worried in that the legs look dark, but that could be an artifact.

I don't like Tennessee for the second bird, but primarily because it's really unlikely in the southeast in spring, as it's a circum-Gulf migrant. However, I cannot come up with a solution to that one. I considered Yellow-throated Vireo, but I think that we can see enough of the wings to see wing bars if they were present. I like "passerine sp."

[darknight]

With the short dark tail and big head, I get a Ruby-crowned Kinglet vibe with some weird lighting causing it to look overly yellow. But I'm not that confident in that ID.