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Female Hooded or Wilson's warbler? (Or am I completely off-base) Virginia, USA (1 Viewer)

T

Terry O'Nolley

Cow-headed Jaybird
I have this narrowed down to being either a female Hooded Warbler or a female Wilson's Warbler.

I am not familiar with either species to have any sense of GISS, but if I had to guess, I would guess Hooded because of the short and "ragged" looking tail.

I only saw it briefly with the bins - long enough to notice there was no obvious yellow streaking in the wings and no facial markings.

I then took one quick picture and it was gone.
 

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Hey Terry - You know that song by coldplay ? " I sang a song for yoohh - and it was all yellow " LOL - sorry that song is kind of annoying - But I think it might be a yellow - But I am sure I might be wrong about that. It seems all the diaognostic features that would prove otherwise are convienently obscured by tree branches. I am curious to see what it is ! - sorry that was lame
 
danehower said:
Hey Terry - You know that song by coldplay ? " I sang a song for yoohh - and it was all yellow " LOL - sorry that song is kind of annoying - But I think it might be a yellow - But I am sure I might be wrong about that. It seems all the diaognostic features that would prove otherwise are convienently obscured by tree branches. I am curious to see what it is ! - sorry that was lame
Click to expand...

LOL! I am a geek so I appreciate lame :D

I discounted Yellow Warbler because there was no visible wing barring. A Yellow Warbler should show some wing bars.
 
Female Hooded shows white under the tail. Can't quite make that out in this photo but it doesn't mean it isn't there. Do you recall white on the under surface of the tail feathers? Another good mark is dark lores for Hooded vs. Wilson's. What do you know... that darn branch is in the way! Next I see a greenish cap on the crown that, to my eyes, forms a hood around the yellow face to the nape. Based on the photo I'd call it a Hooded Warbler.
 
jcwings said:
Female Hooded shows white under the tail. Can't quite make that out in this photo but it doesn't mean it isn't there. Do you recall white on the under surface of the tail feathers? Another good mark is dark lores for Hooded vs. Wilson's. What do you know... that darn branch is in the way! Next I see a greenish cap on the crown that, to my eyes, forms a hood around the yellow face to the nape. Based on the photo I'd call it a Hooded Warbler.
Click to expand...

I never got a look at the underside or noticed any white outer tail feathers. I do remember that the face was very free from obvious markings - including lores.

I only had time to note the things I listed plus the evenly colored darker wings and the darker top of the head.

I was looking for other features that stood out, but the bird was quite uniform in coloring.

edit: Now I am looking at the picture again and I think I see faint yellow wing barring and the beginnings of dark lores! I think I am going mad.....
 
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Terry, I was looking at this thread again. I was just going through my perterson's warbler guide. This is a really good challange - but you know my record allready, I said it was a Yellow !:-C - If I had another chance I would say it is a hooded !:scribe: - But this works because you can be sure it is now a Wilson's - lol - In any case it is a Wilsonian as you had figured out a long time ago ! - Wow, I am good !3:) B :) - thanks for putting up with me o:D
 
I don't have much experience with either bird (especially hooded), but the crown on your bird seems to be getting darker towards the front and gets much lighter behind the eye. From what I can judge from sibley and the two attached photos, this would be better for wilson's. Also, the auriculars seem more olive than yellow and provide contrast with the yellow eye ring and the yellow above the eye. But as I say, not much experience on these two.

female hooded
http://www.bbbo.org/photos/warblers/HOWA_Boutwell_Sp04.jpg

female wilson
http://www.hummingbirdsplus.org/TexasPhotoArchives/Wilson's-Warbler-F.jpg

Scott
 
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This one is tricky!

Until we get a wood warbler expert that recognizes it from GISS, it could be either Hooded or Wilson's.

I have learned to be a bit careful with the illustrations in the Peterson field guides because they tend to over-emphasize fieldmarks.

According to the Peterson book, a female Hooded Warbler has a black outline of the hood (which my bird does not). But there are many (most?) pics of female Hooded Warblers without any black on their face at all.

Of the two photos supplied by cavan wood, my bird looks more like the Wilson's than it does the Hooded.

I was leaning well towards Hooded - but it does look more like a Wilson's.

What to do?
 
Hey Terry - I was wondering if there were any behavioral clues that might help to nail it down? from what I have been reading the Hooded like to "flair its tail feathers as apposed to the Wilson's who likes to quickly flip it's tail foward or move it in a circular motion. In addtion the Wilson's would be foraging a bit higher than the Hooded - just some thoughts from the book.:scribe:
 
Definitely a Wilsonia warbler, but as for Wilson's vs. Hooded...

Hooded has notable white outer rectrices (tail feathers) - like a DE Junco - and UNlike a Wilson's. If you don't remember, I guess...

I don't SEE any white on the tail, but as JC says, that doesn't mean it's not there. As for facial pattern, all those branches seem to be in just the right places to not be able to tell if there's an outlined face, or just outlined super...

Gun to my head, Wilson's is my vote (supported by "no dark lores" comment).
 
The photo does look confusing. But not under close examination, in my opinion.

Three points to consider:

1) What Terry thinks is dark lores is real. When I zoom in at 1000%, I see an area of about 25 pixels below the lower left part of the eye, that comes out from the branch, with no counterparts elsewhere on the branch, that is outside of the purple fringing area. The dark edge is brownish/olive in color, which is the correct color for a first spring female Hooded Warbler, and the correct location. First spring females have more muted colors, without black in the hood, Terry, which explains some of your other concerns.

2) When I zoom in under the tail, particularly at 400% or more, I see that the center of the tail is quite a bit lighter than the edge of the tail. Exactly what you want in a Hooded, their white tails spots are different from the monotone dark ventral surface of Wilson's.

3) Wilson's have unusually thin bills for Warblers, Hooded have thick blackish bills. What we see between the branch fork looks thick and blackish, not like a Wilson's.

If it were just one of the three, then yes, misinterpretation would be a danger. But with 1-3 above on the same bird -- I'm feeling pretty confident it is a Hooded Warbler. B :)

As a quick edit, I see Alex just posted, and the white on the outer edges of the rectrices is for the dorsal surface, for the ventral surface it is dark outside and lighter inside for Hooded. I'm pretty confident we are looking from underneath, and the little bit of angle we can get on surface area should be ventral...
 
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danehower said:
Hey Terry - I was wondering if there were any behavioral clues that might help to nail it down? from what I have been reading the Hooded like to "flair its tail feathers as apposed to the Wilson's who likes to quickly flip it's tail foward or move it in a circular motion. In addtion the Wilson's would be foraging a bit higher than the Hooded - just some thoughts from the book.:scribe:
Click to expand...

I am embarassed to admit that I was too busy looking for fieldmarks to notice its behaviour. I honestly have no idea as to how it was moving its tail feathers other than to say that it never flaired its tail.

I observed it in very low brush - less than 5 feet from the ground.


AlexC said:
Gun to my head, Wilson's is my vote (supported by "no dark lores" comment).
Click to expand...
As for the "no dark lores" - I am still a newbie birder and all should be aware that anything I don't notice should not be taken to mean that it isn't there :D
 
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tizziec said:
Looks alot like the prothonotary I had last week, though I cannotreally see the colour of the wings in that pic
Click to expand...

The Wilsonia genus is smaller than Prothonotary Warbler - different features, different structure - and the yellow head is nowhere near as striking as it is on a Prothonotary.
 
I never even try these in the field, as I could not distiinguish the females. But the picture has a slight eye ring, so I would go for Wilsons.
 
I would lean more towards the female Wilson's. If you look just above the eye you see a distinctive brow, whereas on the Hooded you don't see that. Just my .02.
 
It looks like a Wilson's Warbler to me. Slightly darker crown; slightly darker auriculars; short tail. But I see another and detailed analysis above me which says Hooded.
 
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Something that can be very educational is to do a search for threads you started in the ID forum and see if the experience you have gained since posting the ID request would have obviated the need to post the request had you your current experience at the time you posted the request.

I have seen that most of my requests for ID wouldn't have been necessary. And some of them gave me quite a chuckle.

But this one still has me stumped.

(is this the longest-winded bump in history?)
 
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