4 Might 2024
As I discussed on Thursday morning, I spent a couple of days this week at Magee Marsh boardwalk the place I skilled the quiet days sooner than The Greatest Week in American Birding. On Thursday 2 Might the elements used to be nice, there have been extra birds to peer, and there have been 5 occasions as many of us in comparison to Tuesday. That’s after I re-learned some great benefits of birding with a (small) crowd.
I took place to be on a quiet phase of the boardwalk after I spotted a crowd forming forward. Many of us have been focusing binoculars and cameras on the spot the place two guides have been pointing and explaining a hen. I rushed over to determine what used to be up.
On my first have a look at the hen, I assumed “golden-winged warbler” as a result of its yellow wing, yellow crown, and whitish chest (see instance at best), however one thing wasn’t moderately proper. Phrase used to be spreading during the crowd that this used to be a Brewster’s warbler, the hybrid offspring of golden-winged x blue-winged warblers. Despite the fact that no longer technically a species, for me it used to be a Lifestyles Chicken.
The massive distinction between a Brewster’s and a golden-winged is that the Brewster’s appears faded with a white throat (no longer black) and a black eyeline (no longer a much broader face patch). Right here’s a side-by-side comparability of a male golden-winged warbler vs. a Brewster’s warbler.
This diagram embedded from Cornell Lab’s All About Birds displays the warbler’s oldsters at the left and the Brewster’s within the best proper nook. The oldsters too can produce any other variation: a Lawrence’s warbler (backside proper) which I’ve by no means noticed. Click on at the caption to examine their genetics.
I left Magee Marsh the previous day morning whilst it used to be raining often so I ignored the Brewster’s reappearance however my buddy Kathy Saunders noticed him on 3 Might in the similar position because the day sooner than.
Yay! Very best Chicken!
(credit are within the captions)