Fall plumage Blackpoll warbler in daisies

[Grace Scalzo]

Thanks go to my friend Lloyd Spitalnik for pointing out this bird. I had never seen one in fall plumage before. He was intense on eating insects off the stems of these Montauk daisies and this was as high as he ever got on the plant. A clean foreground would have obviously been ideal. Your reactions?

1/640, f 5.6, ISO800
Canon mk4, 500 f4+ 1.4tc + tripod

[Daniel Cadieux]

What an absolutely beautiful setting you got here!! As you point out, too bad about the OOF FG flowers (that is just bad luck), but man this is quite spectacular in any case. Great pose and excellent job with the flowers' whites.

[Karl Egressy]

He found a beautiful perch. Very nice shot, Grace.
A appreciate any warbler picture but the fall ones are even more special.
They are so busy feeding, no song, they are extremly hard to locate and the foliage won't help to get a clear shot either.

[dankearl]

A very nice photo, Grace, I like the flowers a lot, just a really nice setting.

[Mital Patel]

Grace

This is a stunner for me. those white flowers adding great value to the warbler.

[MohsenVahedipour]

Excellent setting. White flowers make this image exceptional for me. TFS

[Ron Sprunger]

Well done. I've never seen one before. Is this a first winter female (a guess from looking in Sibley's)? Gorgeous background, and the capture and comp are perfect.

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Would not change a thing !!! This is absolutely wonderful !!

[Tom Rambaut]

Great setting and even with the OOF flower as previously mentioned this image to me has a great feel about it.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely natural setting a really shot I like it very much indeed, the detail in the plumage is excellent.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Just a beautiful image Grace.

[Ishmeet Sahni]

Grace, this is an amazing shot. To me the OOF flowers adds a lot to image. This is nature at its best, changing or tweaking
anything would be nothing short of sacrilege.

[Arthur Morris]

I asked a few friends to confirm the ID here.

Noted author/artist/naturalist had this to say:

"And blackpoll on the daisy bird. It really looks like a baybreast except for the yellow legs and feet. It's very lightly streaked for a blackpoll, and has a very faint dark line through the eye (usually pretty strong on a blackpoll). But the yellow extremities could belong to no one else.'

And from expert birder Kevin Karlson:

"The bird in the flowers is indeed a Blackpoll Warbler, and probably an immature male due to the bright yellow throat and yellow legs. Immature females have dull legs with a hint of yellow and yellow feet or soles of the feet, and less yellow coloration to the upper breast. This bird has a bit more yellow in the throat than I am used to, but maybe a bit of saturation in Photoshop accentuated this color tone. Adult Blackpolls in the fall have a few well defined black streaks on the upper breast sides, and I have seen a few of these in Cape May this year."

This arose from a discussion of the Pine Warblers in Joe's photo here. Start reading from Pane 8.

[Grace Scalzo]

Artie, I didn't know what it was. Lloyd said "blackpoll", probably an immature male, and when I looked closely at the image and compared it to some other photos, it seemed right. Lloyd is rarely wrong about his id's. Glad everyone agrees. I added a bit of vibrance to the bird but no saturation. There have been some warblers here (Long Island) this year but certainly nowhere near what we used to see 15 + years ago. Kinglets are starting to arrive in fair numbers.

[Arthur Morris]

It is nice when most agree. The image is loverly as above. Where?

[Grace Scalzo]

Thanks, Artie, it was at the Coast Guard station, Jones Beach, that little garden right by the restrooms.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Grace and YAW. The garden was not there when I was :).

[Arthur Morris]

And lastly, from Richard Crossley, author of the Crossley Guide to Birds: "It is a Blackpoll that looks a bit too yellow around the throat."

[Grace Scalzo]

Thanks again for dogging this down, Artie. At some point I will go back to my original capture and tone down the yellow.

[Arthur Morris]

YAW; I always like to get it right :).

[Grace Scalzo]

Me too and I've learned a ton from this image...mainly to really watch the photoshop tweaks and remain true to the species being photographed. Having never seen this bird in fall plumage before I relied on my memory of what I saw which was flawed.

[Arthur Morris]

I would not worry too much about the yellow in the throat. Their is always lots of variation in individuals. Hey, be sure to have your snow tires on by 8 DEC. I am coming up to LI then till the 21st for my annual NY blizzard!

[Grace Scalzo]

Super on the blizzard, I look forward to it. Maybe Mother Nature will bless us with some snowy owls this year. And there's always Morton and LI ducks.