I was all set to head out for my daily birding constitutional… but then I noticed some odd movement in the trees on my corner. This birb, whatever it was, flew like a warbler—quick short flights, bit of hovering, then returning to its perch—but wasn’t like any warbler I recognised. Its colours were very like a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, especially the wings with their sharp bars and thin yellow stripes. But the chest was too yellow, and I was left to scratch my head.
Well, after taking a bunch of photos, of course. I’m very happy with them, especially given the light wasn’t that great and, whatever kind of warbler it is, it did the other warbler thing of never sitting still.
The real mystery came later as I tried to run a couple of the better photos through Merlin. No match could be found! I tried the “step by step” ID process, and that likewise told me nothing useful: either kinglet, Pine Siskin, or goldfinch, all of which were 100% untrue.
(Or did a warbler somehow interbreed with a Ruby-crowned Kinglet?)
I passed the photos to my birding buddy, who also ran them through Merlin, but this time they were flagged as a Blackpoll Warbler. I was a bit skeptical at first, because I had run through a list of warblers and none looked like this. But of course that list was full of photos of breeding males, while this looks like a nonbreeding female or immature individual.
So there we go: a lifer! And far out of her range, too, no wonder Merlin was having trouble. She should be on her way to the Caribbean by now, not hanging around my street. Maybe the recent storms blew her off course, or maybe she just got lost?
Part of me wants to see her again, but most of me hopes she’ll find her way to her friends soon!