RFI-Bird ID please (from Point Pelee trip)

[cocosally]

Number 1



Number 2


Number 3


Number 4


Number 5 what kind of warbler is this?


Thank you

[Matthew Strimas-Mackey]

Looks like the first 2 are flycatchers and I won't even attempt to identify them.

Bird 3 - Ruby-crowned Kiglet
Bird 4 - Dunlin
Bird 5 - Palm Warbler

[Bluffs Birder]

Bird 1 - Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Bird 2 - Eastern Wood-Pewee

Walter

[Matthew Strimas-Mackey]

Oop, I guess I was way off on that first one. At least number 2 was a flycatcher.

[Bluffs Birder]

Gnatcatchers, Flycatchers, they should just call them all Bugcatchers!  

Walter

[thouc]

That Palm Warbler looks very pale, according to my book that should be the Western race, can anybody confirm?

/Thomas

[Matthew Strimas-Mackey]

@thouc: Just looked this up because I didn't realize there were 2 races. I think the "Western" in Western Palm Warbler is a little misleading. West means west of Ottawa according to my reference. So, anything we're seeing in Pelee or Toronto would likely be Western I guess. I believe Sibley's painting is of the other, Yellow, race. This explains why the Palm Warblers I see are never as yellow as in Sibley's.

Two subspecies of the Palm Warbler exist, easily identified in the field. The two forms inhabit separate breeding grounds but overlap on their wintering grounds. The Western Palm Warbler (D. p. palmarum) nests roughly west of Ottawa, Ontario, and winters along the southeastern coast of the United States and in the West Indies. The Yellow Palm Warbler (D. p. hypochrysea) nests east of Ottawa and winters primarily along the Gulf Coast. Studies on the interactions of the two subspecies are needed.

From http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/238/articles/introduction

[thouc]

Thanks Matthew,
in my book there was no indication where the border between Eastern and Western birds were.
I guess there are intermediate birds too. I think the Palm Warblers I have seen in the spring have been much more yellow than this bird, but maybe not as yellow at the Eastern race.

/Thomas

[cocosally]

Thanks guys for all your help. It was surely fun to bird in Point Peele.