Verification of Unusual
Sight Record
For Utah
Rec. # 2004-33
| Common name: |
Palm warbler |
| Scientific name: | Dendroica palmarum |
| Date: | October 5, 2004 |
| Time: | 2:15 pm |
| Length of time observed: | about 2 minutes |
| Number: | 1 |
| Age: | adult |
| Sex: | |
| Location: | Mouth of Santaquin Canyon, south of the town of Santaquin |
| County: | Utah |
| Latilong: | |
| Elevation: | 5000 ft |
| Distance to bird: | 30 ft |
| Optical equipment: | Celestron Ranger 10x50 binoculars |
| Weather: | Sunny and warm |
| Light Conditions: | excellent |
| Detailed description of bird: | Upperparts and crown grayish brown, throat whitish, breast and belly grayish white with brown streaks on breast and flanks. Strong white supercilium and a dark eyeline. Undertail coverts bright yellow, undertail black at the base with white rounded patches at the end of the tail feathers. |
| Song or call & method of delivery: | none |
| Behavior: |
Foraging half way up in a cottonwood tree and moving through foliage and
branches of willows with a group of 3-4 yellow-rumped, and 2 orange-crowned
warblers and several ruby-crowned kinglets. It was moving constantly and I could
see it from many angles especially noting the undertail-tail pattern adn the eye-stripe-supercilium on the face. Tail-pumping was not obvious to me because it was moving fairly rapidly from branch to branch and I did not know to watch for it. |
| Habitat: |
The last sizeable group of tall cottonwoods and willows when you come out of the
canyon along a brushy hillside opening up to weedy fields and orchards. |
| Similar
species and
how were they eliminated: |
When I saw the white line above the eye I thought it could be a "Myrtle" yellow-rumped warbler, but a yellow-rump has white undertail coverts. Prairie warbler has an overall similar appearance in the fall, but again the undertail coverts are pale yellow or whitish with no black at the base of the tail, and the face pattern differs with white circular patterns above and under the eye. According to "Warblers" by Dunn/Garret Palm warbler is the only one with the yellow undertail coverts/black and white undertail pattern which I saw very clearly on this bird. |
| Previous
experience with this & similar species: |
I have seen a breeding plumage spring Palm warbler in Ohio, but am not familiar with fall individuals. When I saw it I thought that it must be one of the "P" warblers we don't get in the West, and had to consult my Sibley to confirm the fieldmarks of the Palm warbler. |
| References consulted: | The Sibley Guide to Birds, John Dunn/Kimball Garrett: Warblers |
| Description from: | From memory |
| Observer: | Tuula Rose |
| Observer's address: | 1161 S 1060 E, Provo, UT 84606 |
| Observer's e-mail address: | tuularose@juno.com |
| Other observers who independently identified this bird: | none |
| Date prepared: | 10.16.2004 (General Public) |
| Additional material: | |
| Additional comments: |