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Yellow-rumped Warblers and yellow-rumped warblers

Oct 102020

This past week we experienced a yearly birding rite of passage, transitioning from a nice variety of diverse warbler species early in the week to the late season monotonous swarm of Yellow-rumped Warblers that signals the approaching end of warbler season. For those who are somewhat overwhelmed by trying to identify fall warblers, with their variety of identification marks to observe (facial patterns, presence or absence of wing bars, body and head color, undertail color, tail length, bill size, behaviors, etc. etc. etc.), it is easy to get lured into thinking that if you see a bird with a yellow rump, then it must be a Yellow-rumped Warbler, right? Wrong. (editor’s note: when “Yellow-rumped Warbler” is capitalized, it means a specific species, Setophaga coronata, but without the capital letters, a “yellow-rumped warbler” could be any warbler with a yellow rump. Got it? Capitalization matters.)

OK, so here we have a fairly distant bird in a tree. But is it a Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata) or a confounding yellow-rumped warbler? Read on.

Let’s start by looking at a classic fall Setophaga coronata Yellow-rumped Warbler and make sure we can identify it first, and then proceed onward to the confounding species.

A classic fall Yellow-rumped Warbler, featuring dark but thin and diffuse streaks overlaid on a light gray breast, with small yellow patches on the side, a patchy brownish face and the namesake yellow rump. Unlike most warblers, they are often found in groups.

Frontal view of a classic fall Yellow-rumped Warbler, showing that the breast streaks do not continue completely across the breast.

So what other warblers can have yellow rumps? We will ignore the species that are yellow nearly all over, such as Yellow Warbler, Hooded Warbler, and Wilson’s Warbler, since the most important thing is having a yellow rump that contrasts with the rest of the body. After all, it is not merely the presence of a yellow rump that gives the Yellow-rumped Warbler its name, but instead it’s the distinction of the rump from the rest of the body color.

So let’s take a look at a few of those non-Yellow-rumped Warblers that have yellow rumps.

This guy clearly has a yellow rump, but is buffy yellow on the belly, with remnants of a rusty cap, and lacks the breast streaks of a true Yellow-rumped Warbler. This is a bright eastern Palm Warbler, whose most notable feature in the field is its nearly constant tail bobbing.

Here we have a drabber western sub-species of Palm Warbler, lacking the yellow undersides. It’s easy to see how this bird might be confused with a true Yellow-rumped Warbler, but the tail-bobbing would give it away in live view.

This bird, sporting a bright yellow rump patch, is a Magnolia Warbler. Magnolias differ from Yellow-rumped Warblers in nearly every other way, so they are not easily confused if we take the time to examine the entire bird. Visible in this photo, Magnolias have a bright white eyering, two white wing patches, and have a bright yellow breast. But if your only view is from the back, it is best not to come to a hasty decision after seeing just that bright yellow rump patch.

Here’s another warbler with a yellow rump, with little else visible, except for an overall drab gray color and yellow edging on the tail feathers. Could it be a Yellow-rumped Warbler? Decide after you see the next photo, after it turns sideways.

Here is that same bird turned sideways, giving a better field-guide view. It does have streaky sides on a dull-ish breast, similar to real Yellow-rumped Warblers, but there is no yellow patch on its side, and the wings have yellow edges to them, with a partial white wing patch. This is a drab fall Cape May Warbler (perhaps a first-year female?), easily confused with a Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Here we have a frontal view of another drab Cape May Warbler, showing that the breast streaking continues across the entire breast, not just the sides. Also, as is seen here, the bill of Cape May Warbler is more pointed than that of a Yellow-rumped Warbler.

This is a brighter Cape May Warbler in fall, showing the yellow rump that is the topic of this post, but also showing a bit more yellow color on its face that is inconsistent with being a Yellow-rumped Warbler. Note also the yellow edging to the tail and wing feathers and the white wing patch.

So there you have it; we have at least four warbler species with yellow rumps, only one of which is a capitalized Yellow-rumped Warbler. We can take that fact in either of two ways: (1) we can curse the birding gods and the nomenclaturists for confounding and confusing us, or (2) we can have a healthier attitude and say that a yellow rump is simply a great field mark that helps to narrow down the number of possibilities for the warbler we are examining, and seeing it eliminates many other warbler species. I fall into that second camp, using rump color as an important criterion to differentiate the fall warblers.

It Was One Of Those Days

Sep 242020

It’s been quite a while since I’ve enjoyed one of those marvelous big fall migration warbler days. This week we’ve been having nice weather patterns with northerly or westerly winds that have been bringing those infamous confusing fall warblers and other migrants into our area. So today was ‘one of those days’ where the birds were plentiful and active throughout the day, perfect for brushing up on warbler identification and enjoying them in relatively big numbers.

Jeanine and I headed out to Palmyra Cove Nature Park on the west side of Jersey, a wonderful migrant hotspot. The day started out birdy, much the same as other days this past week. The difference was that on Saturday and Monday, the birds disappeared by around 9AM after getting off to a good start, whereas today the action continued for nine hours until exhaustion set in. I suspect that the overcast day with no winds and moderate temperature of 75 degrees helped keep the activity high.

There were multiple highlights. To start it off, we found our third Connecticut Warbler in the last two outings. Considering that I had only seen two Connecticut Warblers previously in my birding career, it was great to more than double that number within the span of less than a week.

We didn’t take photos of today’s Connecticut Warbler, opting instead to enjoy the bin views before it took off. But here’s one from two days ago. That big wide-eyed look due to the eye ring is a special treat for eastern birders.

The number of Cape May Warblers was outstanding today, especially seeing them in different plumage states. They don’t match the brilliance of their spring colors, but still we saw individuals ranging from ones with strong yellow-orange colors to almost pure dullness. Take a look at the range of what we saw today. I entered 20 Cape Mays in my eBird report, but there undoubtedly were more.

Here’s one of the brighter Cape May Warblers from today.

Another relatively bright individual.

Here’s the rear view of a Cape May Warbler, showing that not all warblers with a yellow rump are Yellow-rumped Warblers.

This is on the far drab end of the Cape May spectrum, easy to confuse with a Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Tennessee Warbler is a species that usually makes my day if I see just one. Two Tennessees is a super day. Today we estimated seeing at least 15 of them. At one point we saw six of them in one small tree. This was a great opportunity to repeatedly see the fine points of identifying this tough species.

This is a classic fall Tennessee Warbler….mostly greenish-yellow, with no wingbars, having a dark line going through the eye, white undertail coverts, and a short tail. Beautiful.

This is a Tennessee Warbler in an interesting feeding position.

Another traditionally tough species for me to see is Nashville Warbler. Today I estimated seeing at least six of them. The cool thing was seeing Nashville and Tennessee Warblers in the same tree at least three times today, for a nice geographical duo.

Nashville Warbler. I love seeing that big eye-ring on a gray head.

Finally, I don’t often see Scarlet Tanagers in fall. Today we found seven of them, often close or low in the trees.

A fall Scarlet Tanager, which has no scarlet plumage at this time of year.

There were other highlights of species with lower numbers. Here’s a few of them.

Here’s a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, transitioning from breeding to non-breeding plumage. I have never seen them in this phase before today.

A feeding Black-and-white Warbler. They breed in our area so we are familiar with this little acrobat, but we still appreciate seeing them.

This is a confusing fall warbler that I originally mis-identified. (a good lesson on looking carefully before moving to the next bird) It is a female Black-throated Blue Warbler. The white ‘handkerchief’ is the diagnostic field mark.

Wild Turkeys roam the property at Palmyra.

It wasn’t all positive. This is the first Spotted Lanternfly that we have found. It is highly invasive, and was fairly common at Palmyra today. Expect to see much more of them as they spread across the state.

Overall, it was a SUPER day; perhaps the best day of fall birding that I have ever had. I hope you were able to see and study the fall warblers wherever you do your birding.

Rarity Fever

Sep 072020

Rarity Fever struck in New Jersey this week, when two days ago a Little Stint was found at Brig (=Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge). It was only the fourth NJ record, and one hasn’t been seen in the state for 17 years. I went today, expecting a crowd (which was there), so I joined them. The bird was not being seen in its usual location when we arrived (having been flushed away by a hungry Peregrine Falcon), so we left the crowd, hoping to find it elsewhere in the impoundment. Eventually a text arrived saying that it had indeed returned to its favored feeding location.

So we did get to see THE bird, a peep of a shorebird that looks incredibly similar to every other peep shorebird, so much so that even when people were pointing it out, it often was hard to figure out which bird they were referring to. The plumage is quite unremarkable, with the most notable thing about this bird being the realization that it is lost, and should be back home somewhere in Europe. A giant tip of the hat to Yong Kong for being able to find and identify this bird; I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do it because I don’t have Yong’s patience, determination, or skill. It was a lifer, which is hard for me to come by in NJ.

Just a small part of the Little Stint crowd along the Brig dikes today. Out-of-state plates were seen from NY, PA, and MD. Undoubtedly more states will be represented as the days go by.

At times it looked more like an optics convention.

The darker bird on top is the one that is causing all the ruckus. The most notable identification feature is the white lines (or ‘braces’) on its back.

Seeing these rarities with crowds is always an interesting experience. I very much enjoy seeing local birders who I haven’t seen for a while and being part of a “happening” in our hobby, but overall I’m not the type of person who likes to get out of a car, join a crowd, and have somebody point to a bird, and say ‘There it is”. The best part of the day for me was unexpectedly seeing a Yellow-breasted Chat on one of the trails. And trying to take flight photos of Orange Sulfurs.

Orange Sulfur butterflies, with one at rest and the other in flight.

Winter Finches are Coming!

Sep 032020

Last week while sitting in my living room, reading a book with the windows open, I heard a familiar sound in the background…a tinny yank-yank-yank. It’s funny how a birder’s brain works, since I wasn’t listening for birds, yet immediately and sub-consciously the words “Red-breasted Nuthatch” came out of my mouth. Later that day while playing golf, I heard two more Red-breasteds calling, but didn’t have binoculars with me to confirm that my memory of their call was correct. These combined ‘sightings’ were significant, because last winter I saw only a single Red-breasted Nuthatch through the whole year, and here it was August and already I had my first-of-the-year. And from my living room! Two days later, on a walk where I was hoping for migrants to show up after a night of favorable winds, we spotted at least two Red-breasted Nuthatches (which were flagged by eBird as being rare for this location and time of year), proof that my ear was not fooling me.

Red-breasted Nuthatch is one of those species that mostly breeds far north of us, in southern Canada spruce/fir forest, but also in the highlands of northernmost NJ and in the Appalachian Mountains. It’s one of four nuthatch species that can be found in the US, each having its own habitat preference (quick quiz…can you name the three other US nuthatch species? Answer at the end of this post). Of those nuthatches, Red-breasted is unique in that it is highly migratory, and its seasonal migration fluctuates from year-to-year depending on the abundance of spruce and fir seed cones further north; some years we see very few here in NJ, while in other years they are common. OK, I made a broad statement; now can I back it up with data? For that, let’s go to eBird sightings from August of this year and compare it with the past four years.

Sightings of Red-breasted Nuthatches from August 2020, already extending throughout New Jersey down to the Washington DC area.

Compare those 2020 results with the sightings of Red-breasted Nuthatches from August of 2019, when it was seen in only six locations within all of NJ.

In August of 2018 the pattern resembles what we are seeing in 2020.

August of 2017 was typical of another drought year for Red-breasted Nuthatches in our area.

It’s not too hard to see a pattern in this timeframe, where we have alternating years of sparse sightings, followed by a year where they are common, although going further back in time irruptions don’t necessarily occur two years apart. So if you’re not familiar with the song of Red-breasted Nuthatch (and distinguishing that call from the similar-sounding and more common White-breasted Nuthatch), do yourself a favor and aquaint yourself with its sounds, and get ready for a good year of sighting them.

But there’s even better news for winter finch fans. The increase in Red-breasted Nuthatches here in August has further implications for other irruptive species such as Purple Finch and Pine Siskin. If we look at the sightings of these two species over the past four years, they largely parallel that of Red-breasted Nuthatches, with years of good sightings in 2018 and 2016, and poor years in 2019 and 2017. Because they migrate later in the year, we’ll look at the eBird results for Purple Finch in September of 2019-2016 as examples, and compare that with what we saw for Red-breasted Nuthatches.

Here’s the map showing Purple Finch sightings from Sept. 2019. Paralleling Red-breasted Nuthatch, 2019 was not a great year for this species near us.

Once again mirroring Red-breasted Nuthatches, Purple Finches were relatively common in Sept. 2018, even down to Washington DC.

In Sept. 2017 it was once again hard to find a Purple Finch in NJ.

In Sept. 2016, Purple Finches were again relatively common. So for four years we see similar patterns for Red-breasted Nuthatches and Purple Finches.

Keep an eye out for Purple Finches this coming month. Here’s a male next to a female.

Another irruptive spruce/fir species is Pine Siskin. To save you from map overload, we’ll just show their occurrence in October of 2019 and 2018.

Very few Pine Siskins were seen in NJ in Oct. 2019.

Compare the 2019 results with the abundance of sightings of Pine Siskins in 2018, when they were seemingly all over.

If the pattern holds up, we should be seeing Pine Siskins again around October of this year.

The bottom line is to keep your eyes and ears open not just for Red-breasted Nuthatches this year, but for all three of these species, expecting the Purple Finches and Siskins to arrive later this season. We can always hope to see more of the other tougher-to-see irruptive species, such as White-winged and Red Crossbills or Evening Grosbeaks this winter, but those species prefer pine seeds, so there is no reason to expect them to coincide with Red-breasted Nuthatches, Pine Siskins, and Purple Finches, which prefer smaller cone seeds from spruce, fir, and hemlock.

I almost forgot…the answer to the trivia question posed up above: the four species of US nuthatches are White-breasted (hardwood forests), Red-breasted (spruce/fir), Brown-headed (pine), and Pygmy (pine).

FEB 2021 NOTE: Indeed, the predictions were correct. We had an invasion of multiple winter finches, with tons of Pine Siskins and Red-breasted Nuthatches, lots of Evening Grosbeaks, a healthy showing of Red Crossbills, and a smattering of Common Redpolls here in NJ. It was quite a finchy winter.

Kites and More Kites

Jul 272020

Kites are arguably the least known group of raptors, at least by the general public. If you stop John Q. Public on the street he will be happy to tell you about the eagles, hawks, vultures, Ospreys, and perhaps falcons and owls that they have seen. But kites? To the general public those are the things that people fly on the beach with a long string attached. For us birders the kites fall into the ‘most desired’ category. (Trivia question: how many of the seven North American Kite species can you name? Answer at the bottom of the page.) With that in mind, yesterday brother Rich and I drove to the nearby Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive in hopes of seeing the large numbers of Swallow-tailed Kites that amass in the area and have been seen recently. We were not disappointed.

The Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive is a one-way 11-mile drive on raised dikes through old farmlands that are going through the lengthy process of being restored to its natural wetland habitat. As such, it is a prime birding destination in Florida; in fact, it is the ebird hotspot with the most bird species recorded in all of Florida, with species such as Fulvous Whistling-ducks and Mottled Duck occurring regularly. It’s not just the number of species that is impressive, but also the number of individuals seen. For example, back in NJ we’d expect to see a few dozen American Coots and perhaps a Common Gallinule or two during a typical year. In contrast, during this past winter as many as 28,000 American Coots and 8,000 Common Gallinules have been reported at Lake Apopka, mixed in with the numerous wading birds and ducks. But what drew us here today was hundreds of Swallow-tailed Kites in recent reports. Indeed, as we drove around the dikes, we spotted a flock of birds soaring in the distance. Anyplace else, you might casually write them off as distant vultures. But when we got out of the car and looked though the bins, we were amazed at seeing a horizon filled with Swallow-tailed Kites.

These birds are all Swallow-tailed Kites. I counted at least 62 birds in this photo, and estimate that this was approximately 1/4 to 1/5 of the flock that stretched across the horizon. That means that we saw ~250-300 Swallow-tailed Kites today. Wow! My understanding is that the numbers will increase through this next month. Double Wow!

A close-up view of the large and graceful Swallow-tailed Kite. Now that is a strikingly handsome bird! Seeing even one of these birds is a treat…seeing 250-300 at a time seemed unreal.

The Swallow-tailed Kites clearly stole the birding show today, but we were not yet done kiting. As we neared the end of Wildlife Drive, we spotted another raptor flying over the turf fields. This one had the long pointed wings typical of a kite, but it was smaller and gray, perfect for Mississippi Kite. Indeed, we were able to spot three Mississippi Kites hunting over the fields. This was probably my first two-kite day in North America. A good day indeed!

One of Three Mississippi Kites seen over the fields at the end of Wildlife Drive.

Answering today’s trivia question: the seven Kite species that have been seen in North America are Snail, Mississippi, Swallow-tailed, Black, White-tailed, Hook-billed, and Double-toothed Kites.

Summer Birding in Ft. De Soto Park

Jul 242020

Most of my birding in Florida on this recent trip has been inland, near my family’s home. Brother Rich and I decided to take a trip to the coast for a dozen or so target species that we were hoping to see in Ft. De Soto Park in St. Petersburg. This is a great migrant trap for landbirds during the appropriate seasons, but we mostly had shorebirds and sea birds on today’s hoped-for list. The park did not disappoint at all, providing great viewing and photography opportunities. It all started with a Loggerhead Shrike (not so unusual for down here) in the parking lot before even unpacking the car.

A Loggerhead Shrike that greeted us in the parking lot. I didn’t even have time to get my binoculars unpacked. That’s what you call a great omen.

Upon reaching the beach, we were rewarded with spot-on views of a Marbled Godwit, which turned out to be one of approximately 35 that we saw this day.

One of 35 Marbled Godwits seen today. What a great bird to start with as we entered the beach area.

Off to the right of the godwit near the grasses was a smallish shorebird. It’s size and location high up on the beach suggested that it might be a Wilson’s Plover, and sure enough, that turned out to be the case. This was a major target bird, but we saw well over a dozen of them through the day, more than I’ve ever seen in a single day.

Wilson’s Plover. They were common birds today.

Fifty yards off to the left was our next target, a Reddish Egret. I was approaching slowly and carefully, hoping not to spook it, when a beach-walking couple passed very close to it. The bird flew just a short distance and then started hunting in its comical yet effective way, yielding too many great photo ops.

Reddish Egret all fluffed up. I love that furry look and the yellow eye.

Reddish Egret dancing to scare up some fish.

Sometimes it would wave its wings while dancing.

It might look like a comical and at times goofy hunting method to us, but it is effective.

All of this happened within the first 15 minutes or so of arrival. Could it get any better? Well, how about a flock of 33 Roseate Spoonbills?

Here is the flock of Roseate Spoonbills. I counted 33 Spoonbills here, FAR more than I’ve ever seen in a single location.

Those paddle-shaped bills on the Spoonbills just don’t seem real. Especially compared to the typical dagger-shaped bills that we see on the more familiar herons and egrets.

Or how about a dozen or more Snowy Plovers, at times in close proximity to Wilson’s Plover for a great comparison of two of our more difficult shorebird species.

Snowy Plover. We would have been happy seeing a single one of these birds, but were able to view more than a dozen today, typically at very close range that can make a bird photographer drool.

Here we have a comparison of Wilson’s Plover on the left and a Snowy Plover on the right. Notice especially the darker plumage of the Wilson’s and the difference in bill sizes, with the enormous Wilson’s Plover honker and the delicate bill of the Snowy.

Or how about a banded Piping Plover for yet another plover comparison. This bird was banded in North Dakota in 2017. I didn’t know that they even breed in North Dakota. You learn something new every day.

This banded Piping Plover was reported to the Bird Banding Lab, which quickly replied back that it was banded in North Dakota in 2017. Cool.

The plovers weren’t the only shorebirds around today. This is a lovely Western Sandpiper, transitioning out of breeding plumage.

Or how about tern-a-palooza. Flocks of terns littered the beach, with more than 200 Sandwich Terns, dozens of Royals, at least 150 nesting Least Terns, along with Common Terns and single Caspian Terns and Black Terns thrown into the mix. I love the needle-in-a-haystack feel of searching through tern flocks.

This is just part of the largest mostly-tern flock after the tide rose, to give you an idea of the number of birds that were on the beach here at Ft. De Soto. I love searching through a flock like this for anything that is different.

A spot-on view of Sandwich Tern, “the tern with mustard on its bill”.

A Black Tern spotted within the tern flock. I was hoping to find one in complete breeding plumage, but this was a nice find nonetheless.

I was hoping to spot some Magnificent Frigatebirds on this excursion, because…..well, because they are magnificent. It was ridiculously easy. On the drive into the park we saw two flocks of at least 15 birds each, and later we spotted occasional singletons or pairs flying over the beach. They are great soaring birds, perhaps matched only by the Brown Pelicans that were also soaring over the beach. There are few things that I can say with absolute certainty, but I can say for certain that I will never tire of watching pelicans.

A pair of Magnificent Frigatebirds soaring in unison.

Brown Pelicans in flight. They are huge birds with a seemingly effortless and unhurried flight style.

OK, I know…a requisite Osprey-with-fish photo. But I don’t often get as close to them as I did with this bird.

Back in the parking area, Rich spotted a grayish bird on a wire that didn’t quite look like the superficially similar Northern Mockingbirds or Loggerhead Shrikes. This turned out to be a Gray Kingbird, with its massive bill and relatively short tail; a great bird to see anywhere in the US.

Gray Kingbird. They are relatively grayish with a dark facial mask, similar to Loggerhead Shrikes, but the larger bill and shorter tail distinguish them.

What a great day overall…Snowy and Wilson’s Plovers, Magnificent Frigatebird, Gray Kingbird, Loggerhead Shrike, Black and Sandwich Terns, Marbled Godwit, and Reddish Egret all are tough birds to see in NJ, and here we had them all in a single day often at point-blank range. Mix in a couple of swims in the gulf and a super Thai lunch, and it was a day that couldn’t be beat.

Pandemic Birding in Florida

Jul 202020

I have been spending some time in Florida recently, because, hey, who wouldn’t want to be in the middle of a pandemic hotspot in 90 degree temperatures + 90% humidity during hurricane season? (Can you sense the heavy sarcasm??) Actually, I’m mostly visiting family, but finding some time to bird in between. Most of my birding has been inland, where the best sighting shortly after arriving in FL was finding a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in a local park.

We spotted the bird 2 minutes after leaving the car (and leaving the camera behind, since expectations were low). Fortunately, it perched on a wire, giving me a chance to run back to the car, grab the camera, and snap a documentary photo.

Later we spotted it a few hundred yards away in a more natural setting, as it flew from treetop to treetop.

When seeing a species like this in a location that we’re not familiar with, it can be unclear how unusual it is. It turns out this was a better sighting than I had expected. According to eBird, Scisssor-taileds are seen in Florida each year, but mostly in the Jan. – March time frame. There was only one summer sighting in all of FL in 2017, 2018, and 2019. This was the first one seen in the county this year but unfortunately it turned out to be a one-day wonder, so other birders did not get an opportunity to view it. So it turned out to be a great seasonal and local sighting. And the best part is that it was spotted only five minutes from home on a day when nothing was expected. Birding at its best….anything can show up.

Pop BirdQuiz #24: Florida, May

May 112020

Can you identify this bird?

Click HERE for the answer.

Pop Birdquiz #23: Florida, May

May 072020

OK, so here we have a bird in flight. Are there enough details visible to allow you to identify this bird?

If you need another visual clue, click here for another photo of this bird.

Or click here for the answer.

A new Pop Birdquiz: NJ in March

Apr 152020

I have been delinquent in submitting Pop BirdQuizzes, and hope to put them in more regularly again. Before all the spring migrants arrive, let’s look at a photo of some birds from March.

Here we have four birds on a beach in New Jersey in March. The question is how many species do we have here, and what are they? (click on the photo for a larger image)

Click HERE for the answer.

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