[Maine-birds] Re: Audubon's Warbler (YRWA) Southpoint Sanctuary Biddeford Pool

I misspoke about the taxonomy question on YRWA. There was a proposal before the AOU to split the YRWA into three species. The proposal was voted down based on a study that examined a zone of interbreeding between Audubons and Myrtle in western Canada. Thanks to Josh Fecteau and Bill Hancock and, via his excellent blog, Herb Wilson for the feedback.

Richard Garrigus

p.s. A tip of the hat to Marjorie Watson for discovering the Audubon's. I missed her eBird report until informed by word of mouth of her sighting.

On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 4:36 PM, Richard Garrigus <rgarrigus@meca.edu> wrote:

Spotted an Audubon's Warbler above the small pond within Southpoint Sanctuary next to Great Pond. It flew into bare branches of a tall tree between the two ponds and I checked it out fully expecting to see another Myrtle Warbler, of which there were about a half dozen present during my visit, but noted a yellow throat (opposed to white throat of Myrtle). Reflexively reached for the camera but it flew off almost immediately out over Great Pond. I backtracked to let the group on an outing with Doug Hitchcox know about it. Someone in the group chimed in to say he'd heard from someone else about it. I'd love to know if the someone else who saw it happened to get photos.

I lingered at the spot where I saw it to see if it might circulate through again. No luck on that. Insufficient looks to know sex of the bird but I do feel fairly confident it was a full species and not an intergrade of the two species.

Unfortunately the two species were officially lumped together in the last round of AOU taxonomy debates. Meaning I lost a species on my list from my visit to WA three years ago.

Two Hooded Warblers continue at the site.

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