Confusing Fall Warbler ID?

[Bill Dix]

Can someone help me with this guy (or gal). Taken on Virginia's Eastern Shore last week. In the field I had decided it was a non-breeding Blackpoll Warbler, which would be consistent with the white undertail coverts and dark eye line. But when I looked at it on the computer I had second thoughts -- too yellow, and too streaky. Some similarity to a Prairie but that doesn't look right. Any help would be appreciated.

[John Chardine]

Hi Bill- your bird is too yellow to be a Blackpoll. My first thought when I saw the image was Cape May Warbler and I'm going to stick with that because of the heavy streaking, facial pattern, and lack of prominent wing bars.

[Bill Dix]

Hi Bill- your bird is too yellow to be a Blackpoll. My first thought when I saw the image was Cape May Warbler and I'm going to stick with that because of the heavy streaking, facial pattern, and lack of prominent wing bars.

Thank you John. Cape May did briefly occur to me, but since I had never seen one before, I may have ruled it out too quickly. As I look again at Sibley, the hint of a yellow-green rump, the strong streaking, cheek pattern, white wing coverts and possibly a slightly decurved bill all make that a good choice. It seems to hold up as I look at the several other images I got. Thanks for giving me a life bird.

[Paul Guris]

Definitely Cape May. With that much yellow and still showing a nice white chunk in the wing, I'd expect it to be a fall plumage adult male.

[Bill Dix]

Definitely Cape May. With that much yellow and still showing a nice white chunk in the wing, I'd expect it to be a fall plumage adult male.

Thanks Paul.

[Julie Brown]

My first thought was Cape May, since I shot a bunch of images of these guys at a local park in mid-September. First time seeing them for me too, Bill. I was impressed by how beautiful they are, even in autumn. Question for John and Paul, as well as all of you bird ID experts who frequent this forum: In addition to the bright yellow breast, is the bold streaking specifically distinctive for this bird? What about the color of the legs? I ask this because I heard comments from people in the birding group when I was shooting.

BTW, I have started to post fall migration warbler images on my smugmug site (Indiana Birds 2011 gallery) and tentatively put IDs on them. If any of you would like to take a look at them and help me out with the naming, I would appreciate it!

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Julie. Nice warbler shots on your smugmug site. Getting good clean shots of warblers has been my nemesis. The ID's all look good to me, but I'm certainly no expert.

[Julie Brown]

Bill, that is always the challenge with warblers, but a fun one, IMO. Thanks for looking at my gallery!
You have some beautiful shorebird images on your smugmug site.

[Paul Guris]

Julie, Cape May Warbler is indeed a streaky bird in virtually all plumages, but the streaks can be very dull and diffuse on a drab fall bird. The yellow on the breast is good for males and perhaps fall adult females (I'd have to check on that), but immature fall Cape Mays are notorious for sometimes being completely drab and showing very minimal yellow. These ultra-drab birds trip people up every year down in Cape May. One field mark that is good and consistent is that Cape May shows a greenish/yellow rump patch, sort of like a Yellow-rumped but not nearly as bright. Another good mark is that they usually have a dull yellowish area just behind the cheek.

If you go to the BirdFellow species ID photos for Cape May Warbler, I have a few ID quality pics up there of a dull bird:
http://www.birdfellow.com/birds/cape...rina#/idPhotos
The pale yellow patch behind the cheek I mentioned above can be seen very well in my first pic, which is ID photo #2.


I also put up a couple amusing positions of another dull bird on my Facebook gallery called "Bird Photos That Amuse Me" (which is actually more high-brow than my "Crappy Bird Pics" gallery.) Here are links to the individual photos:
Cape May Warbler View #1
Cape May Warbler View #2
Cape May Warbler View #3
You can see that the yellow in the breast is spotty and inconsistent on this bird. The yellowish patch behind the cheek shows up OK in View #1, not so much in the other two views of this bird.

I don't know how well I explained it, so if any of this is confusing feel free to make me explain it better. I'll take a look at your warblers too.

[Julie Brown]

I think you explained it very well, Paul. Thanks for giving me so much information, and your photos are helpful. I can detect the yellow patch on the cheek on all of the birds, even the duller ones.