[TN-Bird] Lewis County mystery bird -- opinions?
- From: Bill Pulliam <bb551@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: TN-Bird <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 12:53:51 -0500
I've been debating whether to go out on a limb with an ID for this
bird. Instead, I'll put it out for opinions. This is not an easy call.
The bird was in my backyard in rural Lewis County this morning
(Thursday 31 August 2006). I saw it repeatedly over about 5 minutes
at fairly close range in a thicket of elm, sumac, sycamore, etc. The
first viewings were backlit, so I moved around to the other side of
the thicket and got some looks in better light. This is what I saw:
My first impression was of a fairly long-tailed, long-billed
warbler. I saw that it had very dull coloration, greenish above,
yellowish below, with distinct but not bold wingbars. There was not
any real streakiness about the bird. I never saw a hint of tail
spots. I was repeatedly seeing something about the bird's throat - a
dingy gray-duskyness in slight contrast to the breast below it, most
conspicuous (but still subtle) at the sides of the throat. The bird
had a distinct, but again not bold, eye ring that appeared broken,
and hints of something resembling faint spectacles. The eye was
dark. Some features the bird definitely did not have include any
yellowness to the lores or spectacles, and any distinct spotting or
streaking on the breast. The greenness on the top and yellowness on
the bottom were both muted, not strong colors. The shape of the bird
ruled out a large number of drab autumn warblers -- it was definitely
long-tailed and long billed in appearance; the bill did not however
appear thick. It also seemed relatively large. As you can tell from
all my qualifiers, this was not a strongly marked bird in any way.
It behavior was moderately slow gleaning, moving in a relaxed sort of
fashion at heights from near the ground to about 10 feet up in the
brushy young trees. Spishing and screech-owl imitations seemed to
attract some interest, but did not get it highly aggitated. They did
trigger two vocalizations, but I'd like to hear what people think
about just the visual description before I get in to those.
Opinions?
Bill Pulliam
Hohenwald TN
=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with
first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation.
You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds
you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should
appear in the first paragraph.
_____________________________________________________________
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
_____________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
______________________________________________________________
TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society
Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
endorse the views or opinions expressed
by the members of this discussion group.
Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
------------------------------
Assistant Moderator Andy Jones
Cleveland, OH
-------------------------------
Assistant Moderator Dave Worley
Rosedale, VA
__________________________________________________________
Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
ARCHIVES
TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/
EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif
Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com
_____________________________________________________________
Other related posts:
- » [TN-Bird] Lewis County mystery bird -- opinions?
