My to my excitement I received an email from William McHale who decided to follow up my strange Cerulean and was rewarded with the incredible series of photos below. It is very clear now (to my eye) that this is not a hybrid, at least one assessable by phenotype/plumage, but that it is a male Cerulean Warbler with an injury to its left side of its face. The apparent white wing panel I thought I was seeing was actually the white outer flank feathers.
All this still leaves the question "why does this bird sing the way it does?" Allen Chartier suggested to me that an injury to its syrinx, esp. if only to one side of the syrinx, could produce such strange songs (perhaps the facial injury extends to the syrinx?). Another possibility would be that this bird learned the strange song (it is an oscine, afterall) from another bird, but what other species sings like this? I am aware of no species which sings this way.
Copyright William McHale 2009
Copyright William McHale 2009
Copyright William McHale 2009
Copyright William McHale 2009
1 comment:
Hello, cool post on Cerulean warbler. I live in New york and there is a famous birding spot where hooded warblers and ceruleans breed. Two weeks ago many different people posted on the bird server a cerulean doing the hooded warbler call!
Post a Comment