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Bird Photos: Rarities: Prothonotary Warbler in
South San Francisco
Colma Creek, San Mateo County, CA
This Prothonotary Warbler was first reported by
Ron Thorn on 9/26/04. The location is a edge of the San Francisco
Bay just north of the SF Airport where there's a restored marsh
at the mouth of Colma Creek. It seems like an unlikely place for
rare birds, but as Ron has demonstrated on many occasions, there
are lots of rarities that use the little patches of vegetation
in this area.
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I took these photos on 9/29/04.
Although there was a lot of yellowish fennel in this area,
the bird "popped out" of the background because
of its bright plumage.
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In this shot the whiteness of the undertail coverts are blown
out, too much light, no detail. The lower bill and lower
edge of the upper bill show a more pinkish color compared
to the first shot in which the culmen, the upper edge of
the bill, is dark. According to the Dunn and Garrett Warblers
guide, the pale bill is a feature of all fall birds.
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Ron Thorn, in his original
posting of this bird on the Peninsula Birds email list,
gave a good assessment of this bird, concluding that it
was either an adult female or first fall male. I didn't
see it spread its tail and was not able to get more information
as to its age and sex.
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| One more shot of this rather
stunning bird. It's amazing how different the bird's shape
and proportions appear in each of these shots.
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All images on this page are copyrighted by Les Chibana.
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