Verification of Unusual
Sight Record
For Utah
Rec. # 2003-43
| Common name: |
Kentucky Warbler |
| Scientific name: | Oporonis formosus |
| Date: | 5 November 2003 |
| Time: | Afternoon |
| Length of time observed: | ~15 minutes |
| Number: | one |
| Age: | Adult |
| Sex: | Male (from outline of mustache) |
| Location: | My lot in the town of Tropic |
| County: | Garfield |
| Latilong: | 37.5 N. |
| Elevation: | 6300' |
| Distance to bird: | Bird in hand. |
| Optical equipment: | |
| Weather: | Clear |
| Light Conditions: | Good indoors and out. |
| Detailed description of bird: | Underparts bright yellow, no suggestion of green, from throat to under tail coverts. Back and dorsal tail uniformly colored what I would describe as greenish, perhaps olive green. Black or very nearly black crown feathers with irregular or feathered edges, not like a wilson's. Examined mustache and the yellow eye ring closely; eye ring came around from the yellow brow or above eye stipe to the bottom center of the eye as a thin bright yellow line. Mustache had the outline of the a male Kentucky and was black or at least very dark. No wing bars. Legs had a pinkish show-through hue. I thought the bill looked slightly compressed dorsal-laterally, but did not seem askew or damaged by the collision with my window. Believing it was a Kentucky I compared it to the picture shown in BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, by Robbins, Bruun and Zim 1983 edition. Took the bird and book over to my brothers to show him, and for him to witness, but he was not at home. By this time the bird had revived and was trying to escape so I let it go and it flew ~50 meters and then landed in a bush - I though it had a good chance to survive. |
| Song or call & method of delivery: | No singing. I have heard this understory bird sing - it song is loud and clear. |
| Behavior: | Stunned |
| Habitat: | |
| Similar
species and
how were they eliminated: |
Mustache and eye ring diagnostic |
| Previous
experience with this & similar species: |
Have seen a more than a dozen times while birding or Morel hunting in Eastern
Kansas and Missouri. Do not think I ever photographed it. |
| References consulted: | Birds of North America, by Robbins, et al |
| Description from: | |
| Observer: | H. Gail Pollock |
| Observer's address: | P.O. Box 73, Tropic, UT 84776 |
| Observer's e-mail address: | hgailpollock@yahoo.com |
| Other observers who independently identified this bird: | None |
| Date prepared: | 16 November 2003 (General Public) |
| Additional material: | Original Record |
| Additional comments: |