May 21, 2012

Lifebird #450 - Connecticut Warbler

Just a week before Memorial Day, in Veteran’s Memorial Park in Richfield, Joann and I found this Connecticut Warbler. It is the 30th North American warbler we have seen.^[1]Sibley’s lists 51 warblers, so we have another 21 to find. Seven of these rarely or barely cross the U.S. border from the south, at least a couple are found only west of the Rockies, and most of the others are tough or impossible to find in Minnesota. We won’t find many of them right here in in the Twin Cities metro area, that’s for sure.

When I say we “found” this bird, what I really mean is we followed directions posted by someone else on the Minnesota Ornithologist’s Union’s email list (mou-net@lists.umn.edu) to the spot where this bird had been heard and seen. Still, we would have missed it if we hadn’t listened to its song on Joann’s iPod app on the drive to the park, and if the bird hadn’t sung its heart out in dense brush just a few feet off of a paved path. As it was, it took us about 15 minutes to see the bird as we listened to it singing on a branch slightly above our eye-level not ten feet in front of us. It was that well-hidden and—unlike what we often expect from warblers—it moved very little.

I was lucky to shoot a photo (above) showing the bird’s gray hood and throat, white eye ring, and yellow belly.

Species	Connecticut Warbler / Oporornis agilis
Where	Richfield, Minnesota
When	May 21, 2012
With	Joann
Number	450

See lifebird index.

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Notes:

Since you are dying to know: American Redstart, Bay-breasted Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, Canada Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Connecticut Warbler, Golden-winged Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Mourning Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Northern Parula, Northern Waterthrush, Orange-crowned Warbler, Ovenbird, Palm Warbler, Pine Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler and Yellow Warbler.

Update We’ve now seen 33. Add the Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, Louisiana Waterthrush, and Tropical Parula.

We’ve found all but four of these in Minnesota. We saw the Gray-crowned Yellowthroat in Belize, the Prairie Warbler in Florida, the Townsend’s Warbler at a bus stop in Juneau, Alaska, and the Tropical Parula in Costa Rica. [^]

May 21, 2012

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