For those who aren't tired of this topic yet....

In my first post, I mis-wrote when I described the American Redstart in
Stillwater, a first-year male hatched last summer, as molting into adult
male plumage. I remembered this plumage from Connecticut, where we
called the young males "yellowstarts", but I didn't look up the details
until after I posted. (And thank you to Michael Price for his gentle
correction.)

Anyway, juvenile males molt into a female-like first-basic plumage
around the time they leave the nest. On the wintering grounds, as early
as December, they undergo a limited molt into their first-alternate
plumage, which includes some black speckling around the face, throat,
and breast. They retain this plumage unchanged through their first
breeding season, until their second pre-basic molt in the fall, when
they molt into the black adult male plumage.

By the way, the name "redstart" comes from the Old German "roth-stert",
which means "red-tail". The original redstart is the Common Redstart of
Eurasia, a very different bird.

Rachel Lawson
Seattle
RachelWL at msn.com