My birding friend showed me more pictures today with good shots of the
breast. Definitely black streaking. Also a brown stripe (or spot
depending on the light and angle) just behind the eye. His Master Field
Guide from Old World Warblers to Sparrows says females can have black
markings in the breast too. There is a considerable amount of black on
this individual, but not, perhaps, as much as the guide shows for males.
When shot from the side, the black streaking hardly shows up at all.
Maybe if we're lucky the bird will hang around until breeding time!
wjansen
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On Wed, 6 Dec 1995, Raymond Korpi wrote:

> On Tue, 5 Dec 1995, David Wright wrote:
>
> > Re the significance of the chestnut collar, I seem to remember Kenn
> > Kaufman's account in the Audubon "master guide" indicating that
> > females can sometimes have a chestnut wash on the nape, as well as
> > some black on the underparts. It's too bad field guides don't routinely
> > indicate the source of diagnostic characters (personal observation
> > vs. primary lit. vs. taken-from-another-field-guide, etc.).
>
> It wouldn't surprise me if this was personal observation--I believe Kenn
> grew up in Kansas (as I recall) and he would run into a few of these
> birds around this time of year. My experience in the Midwest with them
> was purely breeding and September, so I'm going to fire off a note here
> to a friend back home and see if I get anything. Will post if so. RK
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ray Korpi "Under transient skies
> Hm: Portland, OR I cannot hobble change,
> Wk: Clark College Not now or ever."
> Vancouver, WA --William Kloefkorn
> rkorpi at clark.edu From _Alvin_Turner_as_Farmer_, #16
>
>