Of interest on Thursday at Magee was a hybrid Blue-Winged Warbler.
A little background…the Gold-Winged Warbler is a much sought-after bird to see at Magee (and anywhere else for that matter). We were fortunate to have several chances to view and photograph this little gem. Here’s a shot from Friday, May 10.
The history and life cycle info for the Golden-Winged Warbler is here.
The Blue-Winged Warbler, also a vermivora, was also frequenting Magee this week. The history and life cycle info for the Blue-Winged Warbler is here.
We have some opportunities to photograph them as well….such as this one taken by David:
On Thursday, May 9, we were at the small loop on the Magee boardwalk, when I heard the Blue-Winged Warbler call….looking up, I thought that it was a Blue-Winged, and was able to snap a few brief shots before the birds flew out. We (and a large crowd) were not able to relocate him.
As I reviewed my images and showed them to some advanced birders who had also viewed the bird, it became evident that the bird was not a Brewsters (a first generation cross between a Golden-Winged Warbler and a Blue-Winged Warbler), or a Lawrence’s (a crossback between a Brewsters and a Blue-Wing) but rather the bird had wing patches of a Gold-Winged and head feathering of a Blue-Winged. The experts told me that a Brewsters will cross back with another pure bird; producing a 2nd-generation hybrid warbler. Here are some images (apologies for the poor quality):
More information is available here: aba.org/birding/v37n3p278.pdf
