[Birdtalk] Friday morning at River Lane - mystery warbler blues

[David Wheeler]

Mark Stackhouse & I spent a leisurely, drizzly morning
at River Lane west of Springville.  The most
interesting things we saw were a NASHVILLE &
TOWNSEND'S WARBLER, as well as a mystery warbler that
has us stumped.  The latter originally had me shouting
to Mark that I had found the possible Mourning warbler
beast reported by the Byers, but then I saw the
complete ring around the eye and prominently
pink-based bill and started shouting that it might be
a Connecticut warbler.  Ooh!  Ooh!  There!  Then I saw
the gray belly band and decided I didn't know what the
heck it might be and tried to get Mark on it (I went
for the lifeline).  Mark was in a spot on the road
where the bird was even less visible than it was from
my vantage, so he turned out to be of little help as a
witness to greatness.  Glimpse, glimpse, a flitter,
some shaking leaves, and nothing more...

So here is what I noted in the two-three brief
glimpses offered by the gods:

> Olive-green on top (head to tail--but cannot vouch
for crown)
> Face grayish-brown with clear white eyering
(complete)
> Brownish on face extended down in the manner of a
MacGillivray's to the upper breast, with the same
clear demarcation line between it and the upper breast
one sees in that species (in the same place as well).
> No eyebrow stripe stripe
> However, the chin & throat were distinctly
yellowish, grading into the brown "hood"
> The bill was relatively long for a warbler and
mostly (or at least significantly) pink on the lower
mandible
> The underparts were bright(!) yellow from the "hood"
to the tail EXCEPT (dagnabbit!) for a band of dull
grayish on the lower breast/belly at the area of the
legs.
> No wing bars
> The bird stayed in the mid-crown of a tree (willow?)
and then flew off across the road to another fairly
high, mid-tree, leafy spot in a Box Elder.  It was
fairly sluggish for a warbler--compared to an
Orange-crowned, say, and didn't bounce all over the
place like an excited electron.

Any guesses?  Let me lay out some of my preliminary
conclusions before hitting the literature to see if I
am making some rookie assumption:

1.  Overall color pattern suggests MacGillivray's,
Mourning, Connecticut, and Nashville warblers.

2.  Complete, distinct eyering eliminates
MacGillivray's (the yellow throat is also strong
evidence against that).  It also should eliminate
Mourning warbler, as this eyering was very distinct.

3.  Gray belly area should eliminate (I think) any
oporornis warbler (Mac, Mourning, and Connecticut),
but is good for Nashville.

4.  Pink bill should eliminate the Nashville, I think.
 The brownish head color and breast also don't argue
well for this species.

So that leaves, um, um... a puzzle.  It just jizzed
like an oporornis, says my heart.  It did, it did...

Your opinions are welcome.

Happy birding, one and all!

David Wheeler

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