PICTORIAL HIGHLIGHTS, WEEK OF 8/15/01-8/20/01

A Marsh Wren banded on 8/16 in full juvenal plumage (with no sign of beginning first prebasic molt) was a real surprise--MAWR is a very rare nesting species in Pennsylvania; it is not known to nest any closer than about 75 miles from Powdermill; and the previous earliest fall banding date for the species at Powdermill is 10 September!

                                 IF LOOKS COULD KILL!


This immature female Brewster's Warbler (the commoner of the two distinctive hybrids resulting from Blue-winged X Golden-winged interbreeding) was our first to band for the fall and for the year.


The common impression that most, if not all, fall warblers are "confusing" is based on plates in field guides that illustrate the duller, immature female plumages of many species.  What isn't widely recognized is that males, even immature males, of most of these same species usually are about as brightly colored in the fall as in the spring.  In fact, the males of only a few species lose or lack some or all of their distinctive spring field marks--e.g., Blackpoll, Bay-breasted, Chestnut-sided, and, to some degree, Yellow-rumped and Magnolia warblers.

Here's a sampler of a few of the confusing fall, make that confusing female, warblers banded at Powdermill this week (click here to check your identifications, and for a bonus photo).




 
 


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