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Cerulean or Blackburnian Warbler? (1 Viewer)

The undertail pattern works for Cerulean. The face pattern is good for Cerulean and rules out Blackburnian. I see no yellow coloring on my monitor. The tail seems short, though it is hard to judge from the angle of the photos, and that is another Cerulean feature.
 
KenM said:
Six to one Andy with salient features underlined...tail, neck band, colour to wing, face pattern for all to see and I suspect some of our US friends have more experience than just the one observation. FWIW I’ve seen Cerulean just the once!, a black dot “buzzing” atop a 60’ tree on an exceedingly dull day, it’s a bird that I’ve vowed to see properly one day hence my “focused” interest in the species. :t:
Click to expand...

All theses 'salient' features are debatable IMHO

1 Tail, just not visble enough, other warblers have a similar pattern.

2 Breastband - is it one or is it the light?

3 Face pattern, I am yet to find an image anywhere, that shows a dark line, running through an otherwise pale face.

4 Colour, we seem to be seeing different things, I trust my monitor and my perception of colour so colour me, unconvinced.....:t:
 
Having looked closely again at the “neck band” I’m inclined to agree with microtus that it may not be as such...possibly the curving of the leaf stem giving the impression of a neck-band?

That said I fully support the blue wing and the under-tail pattern which shows better in image three (I believe this pattern is unique to Cerulean Warbler, it certainly appears so in Sibley?).

Matched to the short tail, white unders and broad pale super, I’d have trouble ascribing it to anything else.

Cheers
 
I see I'm late to the party.

Andy, I appreciate your questioning. I'm quite confident it's a Cerulean, as others have said. The combination of faint flank streaking, face pattern (though blurry), and short tail can only realistically land you at Blackburnian and Cerulean. Take a look at the tail in the first image. This is the clearest picture we have of the tail. Instead of trying to look at the whole undertail, where feathers are a bit askew, try looking at the leftmost tail feather, which is clear and complete. I see a little bit of black towards the beginning, then a rounded white mark, then a black tip which wraps around the white and creates the impression of a dark tail tip. On Blackburnian, this outermost tail feather would be mostly white, save for a thin black line that gets slightly thicker towards the tip and does not wrap inwards at all.

In my opinion, the tail is more visible than the face, and on a somewhat grainy image I am more comfortable distinguishing black and white than subtle greens and browns.

Other members have provided some great discussion, and I'm glad the OP posted these photos!
 
KenM said:
Having looked closely again at the “neck band” I’m inclined to agree with microtus that it may not be as such...possibly the curving of the leaf stem giving the impression of a neck-band?

That said I fully support the blue wing and the under-tail pattern which shows better in image three (I believe this pattern is unique to Cerulean Warbler, it certainly appears so in Sibley?).

Matched to the short tail, white unders and broad pale super, I’d have trouble ascribing it to anything else.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Hang on a minute, I was telling you that all day!
 
birdmeister said:
I see I'm late to the party.

Andy, I appreciate your questioning. I'm quite confident it's a Cerulean, as others have said. The combination of faint flank streaking, face pattern (though blurry), and short tail can only realistically land you at Blackburnian and Cerulean. Take a look at the tail in the first image. This is the clearest picture we have of the tail. Instead of trying to look at the whole undertail, where feathers are a bit askew, try looking at the leftmost tail feather, which is clear and complete. I see a little bit of black towards the beginning, then a rounded white mark, then a black tip which wraps around the white and creates the impression of a dark tail tip. On Blackburnian, this outermost tail feather would be mostly white, save for a thin black line that gets slightly thicker towards the tip and does not wrap inwards at all.

In my opinion, the tail is more visible than the face, and on a somewhat grainy image I am more comfortable distinguishing black and white than subtle greens and browns.

Other members have provided some great discussion, and I'm glad the OP posted these photos!
Click to expand...


Thanks for the input, as I said before, I wasn't saying it wasn't one, just wanted to know, definitively, why it was one!
 
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