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Answer 2 |
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Photo #2 “Moderate Difficulty” This one is a small-appearing Passerine, with a short and fairly slender bill, and an overall appearance suggesting one of the small species that work through vegetation gleaning for insects and so forth. The fairly bright yellow throat and breast eliminate many possibilities. The posture is wrong for any flycatcher. Any vireo that might occur in the area would either have a pale supercilium, or a combination of an eye-ring and wing-bars, the bill is also not right for a vireo (and there are only a couple of rare vireo species with a bright yellow throat, neither of which looks like this). The bill is too small for tanagers, and the overall structure is wrong for any oriole. We are pretty much left with the Wood Warbler family (Parulidae). This is a large family, and most have at least some yellow on them. Many, though, have at least some noticeable patterning in any plumage, with obvious wing, tail, and/or face markings, streaks, or other things this bird lacks. Some of the Vermivora combine extensive yellow with an overall lack of patterning, but none of these quite fit- Orange-crowned and Tennessee have a dark eye-line and pale supercilium , sometimes vague on Orange-crowns, but at least somewhat visible. The gray face, yellow throat contrast on this bird might suggest Nashville, but these always have a fairly uniformly grayish head (ranging from clear bluish gray to dull grayish olive, but not a gray smudge on a greenish face) and a bold eye-ring. Also, all these Vermivora warblers are all more slender than this bird, and have much thinner bills. Yellow Warblers can be similar in overall color, but they always have pale (yellowish) edgings to the wing feathers, and also have a paler-faced look. Wilson's Warblers have a quite plain yellow face, are all yellow on the underparts, and have a smaller bill. Immatures of some of the large, heavy-bodied Oporornis warblers (MacGillivray's and relatives) are fairly similar; of these only an immature Mourning normally has a plain, dark face plus a bright yellow throat. These are differently proportioned, however, with a long body and quite long undertail coverts, plus a short tail, and also more uniform yellow on the underparts. One warbler that is a good match for this bird both in plumage and structure is Common Yellowthroat. The overall wren-like structure is characteristic of the species. On this bird, some dark grayness around the eye and in the auricular area marks it as a young male, and foreshadows the black mask characteristic of adult males. Even in females, though, the face is always comparatively dark on a yellowthroat, and contrasts with the yellow throat, helping to distinguish it from some other fairly nondescript yellowish warblers (but see notes on Nashville and Oporornis above, also note that some female/immature yellowthroats can show a thin eye-ring and a vague trace of a supercilium). The wren-like structure and behavior also helps to identify this species; once well learned, these can often be identified at a glance. This immature male Common Yellowthroat was at Antonelli Pond on July 17.
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