NJ Warbler Juvenile (1 Viewer)

Mt Paul, Sussex County, NJ 7/1/19

Yellow Warbler.
Female 2cy.
Friendly
Jean

Notice the yellow undertail coverts, which no other common Northeast warbler has.

I am curious about the stated age. Why cannot this be a bird from this year?

Niels

My guess would be juvenile Northern Parula; structure and plumage are wrong for Yellow Warbler (bill too thin for example). The tail shows black bordered tail spots, which would be correct for NP; I think the slight yellowish cast is just an artifact of the lighting–I think they are really white. Yellow Warbler doesn't have black bordered tail spots in any event. Moreover, the distribution of yellow and white on the underparts matches Northern Parula and is wrong for Yellow Warbler; and the bluish gray in the upperparts is also correct.

AidenD said:

Notice the yellow undertail coverts, which no other common Northeast warbler has.

Click to expand...

Either you are mispeaking or need to brush up your avian anatomy. The undertail coverts are not visible in the photo. Undertail coverts are on the base of the tail. What can be seen in the photo is a portion of the tail spots.

I agree it's a juvenile, recently fledged. These fluffy juv. warblers always look like a mess and hardly any two of them look alike. They can defy identification. In this case, we have the yellow tail spots showing well and extending all the way to the tip of the tail which indicates Yellow Warbler to me.

Ok, having done an online search for images, I agree with baby Yellow Warbler now (but certainly not a 2cy!). Never seen this plumage pattern or bill shape in Yellow Warbler before, but I don't do a lot of birding in the heat of July. See here for example:

http://www.lslbo.org/weekly-banding-reports/july-14-20-2016/