US--Tallahassee,FL-Jan-Unknown Feeder Warbler (1 Viewer)

[beaniebirder7]

January 9th of this year, this fella came to my suet cake and i got some very bad videos and pictures of it. no one on reddit could help me and i'm going crazy. I can't tell if the eye ring is complete but generally the yellow on its chest and rump, in person, was rather bright and the feathers on the back wear olive. No wing bars. Any help will be appreciated and calm an ID that's been in the back of my mind for almost three months now!!

https://imgur.com/E6t4Oqc

 

[raymie]

Orange-crowned Warbler.

 

[Indobirder]

Why Orange-crowned?

To me the gray head +yellow throat and rest of plumage looks much better for Nashville Warbler

 

[THE_FERN]

Looks more like Nashville warbler to me. I see a grey head with a yellow throat, pronounced eye ring etc, rather different to orange-crowned

 

[raymie]

Nashville was my first thought, but January 9 would be way out of season. It would be a juvenile Orage-crowned.

 

[rkj]

Nashville. I don't think Orange-crowned ever has a white belly dividing yellow breast and undertail coverts like that.

 

[THE_FERN]

Nashville was my first thought, but January 9 would be way out of season. It would be a juvenile Orage-crowned.

Ebird says it's present in Florida in January, presumably odd individuals

 

[lgonz1008]

Ebird says it's present in Florida in January, presumably odd individuals

Nashville Warbler is a rare winter resident in Florida. I see a couple of them during the Christmas Bird Counts.

 

[raymie]

OK, you guys convinced me, Nashville Warbler.

 

[Jim M.]

Legs are too thick and pale, and bill too robust and long for Nashville.

Orange-crowned Warbler, which is quite variable, looks like a decent fit. If you scroll down this eBird list from Florida there are multiple photos of one that looks close (don't seem to be able to link directly to particular eBird photos – but I may be missing something): Orange-crowned Warbler OCW also much more common in Florida in winter than Nashville.

 

[THE_FERN]

Legs are too thick and pale, and bill too robust and long for Nashville.

Orange-crowned Warbler, which is quite variable, looks like a decent fit. If you scroll down this eBird list from Florida there are multiple photos of one that looks close (don't seem to be able to link directly to particular eBird photos – but I may be missing something): Orange-crowned Warbler OCW also much more common in Florida in winter than Nashville.

Colours are wrong for orange-crowned, including the grey-green form. It's a Nashville

 

[Jim M.]

Colours are wrong for orange-crowned, including the grey-green form. It's a Nashville

Disagree, and structure always trumps colors in any event. Mistaking an Orange-crowned for the much rarer Nashville in winter is a common mistake on this side of the pond. And Orange-crowneds are more likely low, at feeders like this.

 

[Jim M.]

Here's an eBird barchart showing the frequency of the two since 2010 in Leon Co., where Tallahassee is located.

 

[Indobirder]

Disagree, and structure always trumps colors in any event. Mistaking an Orange-crowned for the much rarer Nashville in winter is a common mistake on this side of the pond. And Orange-crowneds are more likely low, at feeders like this.

It looks like a fairly clear-cut Nashville Warbler. Considering they are present, it seems like the right ID in my opinion. The yellow is very bright on the throat, the eye ring can be picked out easily (if you acount for video quality), yellow vent, gray face... even comparing with the example you provided this bird is less "bland".

How is the structure is wrong for Nashville but right for Orange-crowned?

Dismissing plumage would lead us to need to consider a whole pile of other warblers - like Tennesse (since the yellow UTCs don't matter then...). But I get what you are saying. It's not that it doesn't matter, but that structure matters more. However, thickness in a video of this quality (of the legs or bill) seems like a bad metric to me.

 

[KenM]

Here are some stills from the video…😮

 

[Andy Adcock]

Here are some stills from the video…😮

Thumbnails Ken, useless.

 

[jmepler]

Both plumage and structure looks better for Nashville Warbler to me. I wouldn't discount it based solely on rarity.

 

[KenM]

Thumbnails Ken, useless.

Depends on your eyesight Andy.

 

[Jim M.]

Have done some more research, and there are a few reports of Nashville's frequenting suet feeders. I also found a few photos of Nashvilles where the legs look thicker than the more typical pin-width legs you see on them. So I'm moving to the undecided camp. In any event, I don't think the video is good enough quality to confirm a rarity like Nashville--appear to be only two eBird winter records in Tallahassee area in the last 14 years (there are multiple reports of the same bird).

 

[Butty]

appear to be only two eBird winter records in Tallahassee area in the last 14 years

As Nashville warbler is acknowledged to be a scarce species in the region there might easily and unremarkably, by chance, be zero records within one small named area - the fact that there are only two (or as many as two?!) within this particular small area isn't really of any consequence. The bird is what it is, and clearly Nashville warbler's known abundance is no barrier to this being one.