Quiz #307 (2009-3-02) Answer

Click picture for a larger view.

Answer by Tyler Bell and Tony Leukering

Ah, where IS the bird? Or birds? There it is, on the right side of the trunk. While there are very few bird species that habitually cling to tree trunks, even fewer of them are as black and streaky as our quiz bird.

Peter Burke provided an amusing answer:
"I guess the quiz this week has two challenges: 1) find the bird and 2) spelling. As I type this, a third challenge occurs to me: check to be SURE that there is only one bird!"

As did Mark Dettling:
"As far as I can tell it's the only bird in the picture."

And his brother Andy:
"My guess is that you are going to trip people up on with the way the name is written. I copied and pasted the name directly from the ABA Checklist to insure that it is correct!"

And Jane, his wife. Just kidding with the last.

And my old friend Joe Bens:
"If there was something else in that picture, I didn't find it."

Apparently, folks are learning my sneaky tricks. Good for you!

And Tyler Bell provided a not-lengthy, but accurate, answer:
"My first impression with this one was, "What's the catch?" Is there a creeper hidden in there somewhere? A screech-owl?

"Not finding either on close scrutiny, that leaves only the black-and-white warbler [note lack of capitalization!] on the right side of the trunk. That narrows things down, considerably, to Black-throated Gray, Blackpoll, and Black-and-white warblers. The facial markings, particularly the white eye ring, are consistent only with an ID of Black-and-white Warbler. Which leads to the other catch of the quiz of correct punctuation and capitalization!"

Only two responses did not get those aspects correct; a better ratio than I thought might get thrown by the "minefield of hyphens and capitalization." Those answers will not be considered correct for the competition, though the authors' names are noted, below, in the list of correct respondents.

I took this picture of a male Black-and-white Warbler at Cape May Point, Cape May Co., NJ, on 8 May 2009 specifically for this venue.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Black-throated Gray Warbler - 1
Brown Creeper - 1
Carolina Wren - 1

The 29 of 32 providing the correct answer:
Brandon Percival
Aaron Brees
Thomas Hall
Su Snyder
Peter Burke
Bryan Guarente
Mark Dettling
Barbara Deneen
Al Guarente
Lisa Clements
Rick Clements
Victor Germain
Marcel Such
Tyler Bell
Andy Dettling
Bill Rozar
Chuck Carlson
Tucker Lutter
Robert McNab
George Cresswell
Tara Nelson
Peter Wilkinson
Margie Joy
Lori & Mark Conrad
Joe Bens
Nick Moore
Joel Such
Chishun Kwong
Andrea Smith-Guarente

Answer: Black-and-white Warbler

Quiz #306 (2009-3-01) Answer

Click the picture for a larger view.

Answer by Tony Leukering

The apparent smallness and yellowness of this week's quiz bird suggests that it just might be a warbler and the pink legs probably makes that a certainty. Despite that many think of warblers, in general, as yellow, there are very few with this much yellow, given the view we've got, and that lack obvious field marks below. The solution set of such includes Blue-winged, Yellow, Prothonotary, Kentucky, Hooded, and Wilson's warblers.

The apparent yellow primary fringing and outer webs to the greater coverts certainly suggest a Yellow Warbler and, with that species being such a common and widespread species, just on chance alone. Throw in the obvious green head and back, and it would be a good match for a adult female (it's too bright for an immature female) or immature male (it lacks the rufous streaking of an adult male) Yellow Warbler. However, I'm going to cut to the chase here and point out the tail. It only occupies a small percentage of the frame, but it is incredibly important at cutting down the options. What we can see of the tail looks solid green and, because we're looking at the underside, we can see that the bird lacks tail spots (paler areas on the inner webs of the rectrices of many warbler species). This, alone, rules out Blue-winged, Yellow, Prothonotray, and Hooded warblers.

Because of the position of the head, we cannot discern the facial pattern in order to get to the ID among our last two candidate species. So, we'll have to look elsewhere, but where would that be? These two species are amazingly similar, given this view. If we could discern tail length, we would find it most helpful, as Kentucky is short-tailed and Wilson's is long-tailed. But, that datum is not available to us because of the photo's angle. I had to study field guides to find the certain key to the bird's ID: flank and side coloration. Kentucky Warbler has olive sides and flanks, while Wilson's has a brighter yellow patch near the bend of the folded wing. Brandon Percival took this picture -- and the one below -- of a male Wilson's Warbler 9 September 2007 at Pueblo Reservoir S.P., Pueblo Co., CO.



Because we can see the crown patch fairly well on the bird, we can be certain that it is not a female. Eastern females completely lack crown patches, while western ones can have small to quite-large patches. However, even females with the largest black crown patches don't sport such smooth, evenly-bordered patches; their patches have very ragged rear edges. This bird has a number of the feathers at the rear of the patch edged in yellow, suggesting that it is an immature male (hatched the previous summer) rather than an adult male, which tend ot have no yellow edgings or just a few of them.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Hooded Warbler - 4
Kentucky Warbler - 8
Painted Bunting - 1
Mourning Warbler - 1

The 9 of 23 providing the correct answer:
Chuck Carlson
Brandon Percival
Al Guarente
Mark Dettling
Peter Wilkinson
Joe Bens
Aaron Brees
Bryan Guarente
Andrea Smith-Guarente

Answer: Wilson's Warbler