Thanks for the follow-up, Paul!
For anyone interested in doing the opposite of what Paul is doing on Flickr
(actually finding photos of correctly identified birds!), I might suggest
the group Field Guide: Birds of The World (
http://www.flickr.com/groups/birdguide/)
It's got a nice alphabetical index and an impressive number of species and
photos. It's very well-moderated for errors and consistencies, although the
occasional one does get through.
Good Birding,
Frank Fogarty
Smithfield, VA
On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 11:45 AM, Paul Glass <pag@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks for all the responses to my question. After doing a little research
and looking at lots of photos, I am pretty confident in my Orange-crowned
and Nashville ID skills now. Hopefully I can dig one up in the field to
test myself on. Both those birds are very hard to come by down here in
what
I call "the warbler dead zone".
I received several request for the information that I had gathered, so I'll
summarize here:
The bird in question is most definitely an OC. It is almost certainly of
the celata subspecies which breeds in Alaska and boreal Canada, migrates
east of the Rockies and winters in the southeast US. Key ID points are the
overall dull plumage (Nashville should be much brighter, especially on the
throat), broken eye ring (Nashville has a bold, complete eye ring), and
longish tail (Nashville's tail is shorter). There is also little contrast
between the grey head and greenish back and wings. This contrast would be
stronger on Nashville and the head would be brighter blue-gray.
For anyone else who had difficulty with this ID, I found it helpful and
entertaining to look through photos on Flickr and try to pick out the ones
that were ID'd incorrectly. For example, if you search for Nashville
Warbler, you can find several Orange-crowned Warblers, as well as many more
strange mistakes like a Bananaquit, a couple Canada Warblers and
Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and multiple Western Kingbirds (say what!?!?).
Paul Glass
South Boston, VA
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Ake [mailto:rake@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2014 1:55 PM
To: va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Va-bird] Dyke Marsh Warbler Query
The bird in the photo looks like the /celata/ ssp of Orange-crowned
Warbler. In fact I've not seen anything but /celata/ in Virginia.
Currently I have an Orange-crowned Warbler visiting the suet at my
feeders and this bird is a /celata./ Anyone visiting the Norfolk area
is welcome to stop by and take a look. Our address is given below. Ring
the doorbell. If we're home, you can watch for the bird from the warmth
of our house. If we're not home, you can walk around the south side to
the back of the house and watch from the ease of a patio chair. The
bird has been reasonably regular, returning to the suet at least every
hour.
As an aside let me warn against expecting every individual bird to
match the image in a particular field guide. There is indeed a wide
variation in plumage. That's one of those things that makes
birdwatching so much fun. For many birds that we know well, we hardly
pay any attention to the bird's details, bringing to mind one of my
favorite queries: "How many wingbars does a Blue Jay have?"
Cheers,
Bob
6603 Catherine Street
Norfolk VA 23505
On 1/7/14 9:17 AM, Wendy Ealding wrote:
Agree with Arun that it could be celata - I had one at Rockwood Park inwas
Chesterfield County almost three years ago and the thing that struck me
how gray it was on the headGlass.
Wendy Ealding
Chesterfield County
On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 8:13 PM, akb <arun1bose@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Didn't know if there had been any response to the question from Paul
IllustratedThe bird could possibly be *celata, or orestera *sub-species.
and explained (better than I could) at this link >
http://www.birdfellow.com/journal/2010/05/01/orange_crowned_warbler_stealth_
migrant_subspecies
wish
Arun Bose
Richmond
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