Nice pictures. Do all hybrids have to fall into either the Lawrence or Brewsters category? I thought there was a certain amount of randomness and overlaps etc.
Sincerely,
William Leigh
Bridgewater VA
leightern@xxxxxxx
>From: "Mayhorn" <mayhorn@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: mayhorn@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>To: "Birding Virginia" <va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: [va-bird] Brewster's Warblers? Photos
>Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 02:21:10 -0400
>
>VA Birders,
>On 7/5/05 I saw an adult male Blue-winged Warbler feeding two fledglings at the edge of my yard. The young were foraging down in thick vines, Virgin's Bower (Clematis virginana). After watching for a few minutes I got a glimpse of one of the youngsters and realized that these were Blue-winged Golden-winged hybrids. Over a period of about 45 minutes I took several photos of the three birds in spite of the thick cover. By inching my way close and standing very still I got close-up looks. Sometimes the birds fed within 3 or 4 feet of me. In
fact sometimes they were too close for the camera to focus.
>
>After looking at the photos I believe that one of the fledglings is a 1st generation male Brewster's Warbler, even though it doesn't match the field guide drawings exactly.
> I am attributing this to the fact that this bird is a juvenile and may change into adult plumage later This bird has a completely yellow breast, which is not indicative of an adult Brewster's, but does have white from the legs back to the undertail coverts. It also has the gray back with wing-bars and a gray face with a thin black eye stripe and a yellow crown. The second fledgling I think is a female Brewster's. She has much more yellow than her sibling and is completely yellow on the chest and belly, however she does have an auricular patch of gray and the typical Blue-wing eye stripe. Her crown and back is a much darker
yellowish-green with less gray than her sibling.
>
>Take a look at the 4 pages of photos (2 or 3 photos to a page). If someone has a different opinion as to which hybrid these birds are, I would be open to hearing it.
>
>http://users.mikrotec.com/mayhorn/BIMG/HybridWarb/BrewsWarbP1.htm
>
>
>Enjoy the birds,
>
>Roger Mayhorn
>Compton Mt
>Buchanan County
>
>
