Sitka Nature

Spent the day at home, though I did go outside a few times to look at birds.

Weather: The forecast was for mostly cloudy skies, and it was accurate. In this case, mostly cloudy meant brief breaks of blue sky (and sun, if you were in the right place at the right time) between little rain showers that were moving through.

Birds: Connor has been scattering some bird food for the neighborhood birds. I do not think it has attracted any birds that were not around the neighborhood anyway, but it has made the Dark-eyed Juncos more inclined to spend time around our house. I think his (not so secret) hope is that the small song birds attract a raptor of some sort so he can see it.

I’m not sure how many juncos there are around, but it seems like there must be at least 20-30. They do not bunch up too tightly, so it’s difficult to say. One of them has unusual pale coloring. I think it’s one I saw three years ago, the last time we regularly fed the birds. Presumably it has returned in the intervening years, but without feeders, I did not see the juncos so much.

There were two warblers hanging around today. I’m now reasonably convinced that they are both Orange-crowned Warblers, though one of them was much more gray than I have ever seen before and has a yellow rump. They both spent most of the time (that I saw them, at least) foraging in the grass. Occasionally I saw one pull up what I presumed to be a caterpillar. As far as I now, this is the latest record of an Orange-crowned Warbler in Sitka.

Other birds I saw while outside today included a small flock of Pine Siskins, a Winter Wren or two, and two or three Song Sparrows.

This afternoon I was able to observe the mystery warbler again several times, and was also able to get some better photos. In addition, I discovered there was a second warbler, this one far more yellow than the first. Though the warblers did not remain together in an exceptionally close association, they did seem to move around with each other to a certain extent. Both were actively foraging, mostly in the open grassy or weedy areas, but occasionally (and briefly) on trees. It’s possible that they utilized trees more than I realized, because they were most easily observed on the ground. On a few occasions, I saw them come up with pretty good sized insect larva that I took to be caterpillars. When they got one, they would usually fly up to a branch to eat it (or perhaps I only noticed it when they did this).

Comments I received on the first post, as well as through e-mail, mostly suggested Orange Crowned-warbler, though I did have one response that it might be a Palm Warbler if it did a lot of tail pumping. As I did not notice any significant tail pumping, it probably was not a Palm Warbler, though the earlier photos showed some similarity to a Palm Warbler photographed in Gustavus recently. While the second warbler seems a bit more typical of an Orange-crowned Warbler, I’m still not absolutely convinced of the identity of the first warbler. However, it seems most likely that it’s also an Orange-crowned Warbler perhaps of the Taiga race (Vermivora celata celata), rather than the more typically seen (in Sitka) Pacific race (V. c. lutescens). The yellow rump still seems a bit strange, but otherwise things seem to fit.

(click on thumbnails for larger)

Eating a caterpillar(?)
Still showing a yellow rump
Apparent pale supercilium in earlier photo seems to have been an artifact
Faint pale yellow wash on breast, contrasts against pale gray of throat and head.
Caught another caterpillar(?)

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The second warbler, presumed to be an Oranged-crowned Warbler. I belive it’s a new late record for this species in Sitka.

Additional photos can be found at:
24 November Photos: Backyard Birds

I spent a fair amount of time watching (for) a couple of warblers that were hanging around the neighborhood. I took pictures of them and the Dark-eyed Juncos that frequent the area. In particular, I got a few photos of a junco with unusually light coloring to its feathers.
Read more of this >>

Update: I was able to get additional photos this afternoon. I have added them, plus additional comments, in a second post.

Yesterday my son told me he saw an Orange-crowned Warbler (well, I think it was some other color crown, but he still has a little trouble keeping all the names he is learning straight) outside his window. He said it flew around to the side of the house, so I went out to take a look and got a very brief glimpse at a bird that was clearly a warbler. I did not get a good enough look at it to identify it, but it did not look that far off from an Orange-crowned Warbler. I told him to keep an eye out for it, and we saw it very briefly, but I did not see enough to make me think it wasn’t an Orange-crowned Warbler. This morning he told me that it was outside again, so I went outside to take a look.

It seems to be hanging around in a loose association with the neighborhood junco flock. The first thing I noticed about its appearance was how grey it seemed. Much moreso than I associate with Orange-crowned Warblers I have seen around here before. I was able to get a few pictures (of marginal quality) in the dim light, and I hope they’re enough to get an identification, but so far I’m stumped.

(Click on photos to see larger version)
Yellow rump
Broken eye-ring and perhaps a pale supercilium
Undertail coverts appear pale yellowish
Overall grayish tone is different than I’ve seen before
No white edging to coverts

No streaking on breast
Again very pale gray is different than I’ve seen before

I’m assuming this is a first year bird, but it still looks different than the Orange-crowned, Yellow-rumped, and Yellow Warblers I’ve seen around here before.

The lack of streaking and yellow rump seems to rule out Orange-crowned Warbler, both Pacific and Taiga.

First winter Tenessee Warblers appear to be much yellower overall but without a yellow rump.

Virginia’s Warblers (never reported in Alaska, so very unlikely based on geography) seems to be ruled out by the broken eye-ring and pale supercilium.

Nashville warbler seems ruled out by broken eye-ring, pale supercilium, and lack of pale on throat and breast.

Yellow Warbler seems ruled aout by yellow-rump, lack of pale edges on tertials, and broken eye-ring.

Yellow-rumped Warbler seems ruled out by lack of white edges on coverts, pale supercilium, yellowish undertail coverts, and grayish (rather than brownish) coloring.

Palm Warbler seems to have stronger (and longer) pale supercilium, some streaking, a more brownish color, and white corners to its tail (which I did not see when this bird flew).

Those are the closest I could come up with, but they all seem to be problematic for one reason or another. Hopefully I will see this bird again and be able to get some better pictures of it, but that remains to be seen.