Warbler Guy, can you help me ID these warblers? Which web site helps ID birds when I have photos?

Jessie (in Redding, CA), thanks for the photos.......To help you, please try looking at:

http://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/photo-id

As for your warbler photos that you shared with me, below, here's my opinion as to their identities (from top to bottom):

Nashville, Orange-crowned, Yellow-breasted Chat

Regards, Daniel

Certified Wildlife Biologist Asc.

Avian Biologist & Birding Guide

warblerwatch.com (hosts my resume)

Warbler Guy, can you give me a quick way to tell Myrtle from Audubon’s Yellow-rumped Warbler during the winter (non-breeding season)? I see both subspecies of Yellow-rumps where I live in the winter (SF Bay Area), so knowing how to tell Yellow-rumped Warbler subspecies apart would probably be a good idea.

Jay, in San Francisco, there’s two field marks that are excellent, diagnostic clues to help you identify both of these subspecies apart from one another (see drawings, below).

Let's sort out the "winter" plumages here only, given the obvious differences in appearance for breeding season individuals of both subspecies. 

Most (but NOT all) Audubon’s adults during the "winter" wear a faint to solid yellow throat and the Myrtle always possesses a white throat. In all age classes — from hatch year to definitive adults — a Myrtle never shows a yellow throat. That’s the easy, brief answer.

(Above drawing courtesy of National Geographic.)

But it’s not the full one. That’s because rare to occasional individuals of Audubon's ALSO may express a white throat. Which means it's possible to view a white-throated Yellow-rumped Warbler that could be EITHER the Myrtle or Audubon's subspecies.

So now what do you do for ID?

Use the absence of a faint supercilum (i.e., eyebrow) to identify Audubon’s (see drawing here) during the non-breeding "winter" season. Noticing the lack of this feature on a Yellow-rumped Warbler with a white throat should move you to say: “Bingo, it’s an Audubon’s" (i.e., Audubon's are said to wear a "plain face.)

However, if you see during the non-breeding season both a faint white supercilum mark and a white throat that reaches around toward the middle and mid-back region of the neck area on both sides of the head, then it’s a Myrtle.

In sum, Myrtle Yellow-rumped Warbler shows a faint white supercilum and a greater amount of white throat surface area than the Audubon’s subspecies that has a more plain face (lacking the white supercilium mark) and a smaller white to, more typically, faint to dark yellow throat.

The definitive source for my judgment in this matter consistently remains the Identification Guide to North American Bird, Part 1, by Peter Pyle (Slate Creek Press), which is the bird bander's guide to identification of birds "in the hand," and features field mark information corresponding to all age classes of songbirds.

Warbler Quiz #16...Can You Name These Warblers, Below?

Can you name each of the five warblers? (A helpful hint: not all the warblers in these photos are males.)

Check back by 1/19/19 for the answers....or email me at danieledelstein@att.net
warblerwatch.com

(See "Birding Links" pulldown menu for birding information)
warblerwatch.blogspot.com

Regards, Daniel

Freelance Avian Biologist

& 

Birding Guide

Warbler Guy, thanks for your 12/8 post about Kirtland's Warbler nesting success in Wisconsin. BUT do you have more details to share?

Anita...thanks for the note....and, indeed, here's a pasted summary from the Wisconsin DNR that features breeding success highlights of the federally endangered Kirtland Warbler in Wisconsin (in 2017, the most updated WI breeding information for this species, I was told via email on 12/11/18): 
(Source: https://www.fws.gov/midwest/GreenBay/endangered/kiwa/2017/2017SeasonReport.html)

Kirtland’s Warbler Season Summary

Anna Jocham and Lake White, site monitors during the 2017 season, release Kirtland’s warblers after the banding crew color-banded two adults, Adams and Marinette counties. Photo courtesy of Joel Trick, 2017.

• 20 males and 16 females were confirmed in Adams County, 7 males and 4 females in Marinette County, 3 males in Bayfield County, 3 males in Vilas County. 

• 20 total nests: 16 nests by 15 pairs in Adams County, 4 nests by 4 pairs in Marinette County, 0 nests in Bayfield and in Vilas counties. 

• 15 successful nests: 12 in Adams County, 3 in Marinette County. 

• 5 nests failed: 4 in Adams County (2 cowbird parasitism, 2 unknown) 1 in Marinette County (depredation). 

• A minimum of 49-63 young fledged: 38-48 in Adams County, 11-15 in Marinette County. 

Warbler Guy, did Kirtland's Warbler again nest in Wisconsin this past breeding season? — as I know it previously was a Michigan breeding endemic only in the USA. Is Kirtland's Warbler still federally endangered? Kirtland's Warbler breeding range is expanding?

Donnie (in N. Dakota):
Beyond staying warm, I hope to heat up your interest in the ongoing fascinating Kirtland's Warbler (KIWA) progress as it rebounds from near extinction to more robust total population numbers — given, "yes" this federal endangered species (via the US Fish & Wildlife Service) (USFWS) was again detected to nest in not only Michigan and Wisconsin in 2018, but also in one spot within Ontario, Canada.

(Photo courtesy of Dennis Maleug)

Read on, as this avian tale gets more interesting (sorry for the pun....):

1. First, did you know that before starting its Phoenix-like comeback from the brink of extinction, KIWA's entire worldwide population dropped to 167 breeding pairs in Michigan in 1974 (PLEASE feel free to see the below graphic)?

2. Then this 4.5" wood-warbler (that spends the non-breeding season ONLY among Bahama islands), began its upturn in population after conservation group and government agency partnered, thereby implementing long-term management actions to conserve young jack pine habitat that KIWA favors for breeding grounds. In addition, management actions reduced Brown-head Cowbird numbers, a brood parasite known to reduce several North American songbird order species population numbers, including KIWA. (i.e, Brown-headed Cowbirds lay their eggs in warbler nests; larger cowbird chicks outcompete their warbler nest mates, causing the warbler chicks to die while the unwitting warbler parents raise the cowbird imposters.)

3. In turn, responding to managment actions, KIWA's population rose dramatically (again, see the graphic, below), helped by a tragic fire that killed people, but also resulted in ideal suitable breeding habitat for KIWA. The result: KIWA numbers reached more than 1,000 pairs by 2001, expanding beyond the northern Lower Peninsula to areas in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin and Ontario. 

4. Currently, the Kirtland’s warbler population is estimated to be over 2,000 pairs, more than double the recovery goal identified in the Kirtland’s warbler recovery plan established by the USFWS. The population has exceeded recovery goals for the past 20 years and continues to increase and expand its range.

5. More information will soon follow to answer:

How did breeding KIWA do in Wisconsin in 2018? Answer: OK, with the WI DNR noting in a news release that KIWA nests were found in at least two counties throughout the state. 

Note the final 2018 KIWA results were not available from the WI DNR when I wrote and updated this article on 12/19/18. Therefore, I share in the next paragraph the 2017 breeding results for KIWA in Wisconsin (See: https://www.fws.gov/midwest/GreenBay/endangered/kiwa/2017/2017SeasonReport.html): Please check back soon for the 2018 KIWA breeding success update in Wisconsin.

In 2017, the Kirtland’s warbler nesting season marked the 10th year of Kirtland’s documentation and subsequent monitoring in Wisconsin. From only 11 Kirtland’s and three nests found in Adams County in 2007 to 53 individuals and 20 total nests among Adams, Marinette and Bayfield counties in 2017, the population has grown and geographically expanded in our decade of conservation work. 

Regards, Daniel 

Certified Wildlife Biologist Asc. and Avian Biologist

warblerwatch.com 
(hosts my resume and Birding Guide and Birding Tour services......... given I have led tours since 1985).

Warbler Guy, which warblers are most likely to be seen on Christmas Bird Count surveys in the Midwest? Likely Christmas Bird Count warblers in the East? Likely Christmas Bird Count warblers in New England?

Stacey (in Boston), you may be asking this question because some Yellow-rumped Warbler(s) were seen on recent Christmas Bird Count(s) (CBC)?




If so, you are spot-on in thinking this species is the most likely Parulidae (wood-warbler) Family member to show up during the non-breeding season in northern latitudes.




Here's one posting of a Rare Bird Alert from New Hampshire where people witnessed three

Yellow-rumped Warbler (YRWA):



3 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS were seen at Odiorne Point 
State Park in Rye on December 29, 2014.









For the full account of the "rare" bird species detected during this 1/1/14 CBC survey, please see:





http://birdingonthe.net/hotmail/EAST.001114302.html





Which other warbler species are the most likely to appear in the dead of winter in NH or other upper Midwest and East Coast areas?





Beyond the YRWA, look for the following as the "usual suspects":


(and NOT typically annual every "winter" in northern USA latitudes):





- Common Yellowthroat


- Palm


- Yellow-breasted Chat (more typically Mid-Atlantic and south from there)


- Pine (sometimes eats seeds at winter feeders)





Long shots, and rarely present (and NOT typically annual every "winter"):





- Bay-breasted


- Black-and-white


- American Redstart


- Cape May





Feel free to write me with more questions, Stacey....and other readers:


danieledelstein@att.net


warblerwatch.com

(hosts "Birding Links" for free birding info. & also hosts my resume)


warblerwatch.blogspot.com

(my warbler-centric blog since 2007)

Warbler Guy, is it unusual to see wood-warblers at backyard seed feeders? Wood-warblers at feeders I can expect to see?

Jerry (in southern Michigan).....Great question, as in your area this time of year (November and, indeed, through ~February or so) I'd expect potential seed feeder sightings from a lonely, uncommon Pine Warbler or Yellow-rumped Warbler.

(Above: male Yellow-rumped Warbler, 
Setophaga coronata audboni, 2007, Cupertino, CA (male breeding plumage). Photo courtesy of creativecommons.org....Note: Obviously, winter-time sightings of this species do not typically "wear" breeding plumage like the individual shown above.)

On the West along coastal California (where I live in the SF Bay area), it's not common, but Townsend's Warbler could show up along with Yellow-rumped. 

Yellow-rumped subspecies in the lower 48 states —both Myrtle and Audubon's — are able to digest waxy coatings on seeds (such as privet and wax myrtle berries), unlike most other wood-warbler species....That's because they have hearty digestive juices to process seeds (as does Pine Warbler).

Otherwise, I have to admit in my 40 years of birding, I've never seen any other wood-warbler species at seed feeders.....though backyard nectar feeders sometimes coax Cape May Warbler, among other songbird species.

OK, I'm out to watch raptors today, later, then soon conducting a birding tour soon to Bodega Bay (in Sonoma County, 60 miles northwest of San Francisco) so wishing you the best.....Please feel free to see my "Birding Tours" area at my web site: warblerwatch.com

Regards, Daniel Edelstein