I was out for my morning walk yesterday when I came across a Yellow Warbler singing. This is becoming less and less common so I stopped for a moment to enjoy it. (This pic of a Yellow Warbler was taken on a previous outing.)
While standing and listening to this great little summer bird, in flew another bird that looked very different. It was yellow, had a distinct eye ring, a pinkish beak and plenty of gray on it.
What could this be? I took pictures of each angle so that I could look it up when I got home. There were similarities between this bird and the Tennessee Warbler and the Nashville Warbler but there were just as many differences. Searching through several bird guides, I couldn't find a bird that looked like this.
The body shape was very much that of a Yellow Warbler but what was up with all of the gray and the eye ring? When there is not a clean match between a mature bird and all of the pictures available, chances are that the bird is an immature. While I tried to "will" it to not be so, I really suspected that this little bird was an immature Yellow Warbler. Confirmation from those who know so much more than I do agreed that this is, indeed, a Yellow Warbler.
Well, as the saying goes...."Fool me once......" I will surely be able to identify any immatures such as this one the next time I have an encounter.
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