Yes, Bob pointed me at a couple of specific photos. In viewing them
closely, I concede that the undertail coverts are not as extended as I
though.

I also concur that American Redstart appears certain to be one of the
parents.

Might I throw out the possibility of MacGillivray's Warbler x American
Redstart? (I'm still hung up on the idea of an Oporornis as one parent...)

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland, WA
== http://www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
== http://www.marymoor.org/BirdBlog.htm
== birdmarymoor at verizon.net

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Dossett" <phainopepla at yahoo.com>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 4:52 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Queen Anne Warbler


>
> Hi everyone,
>
> I've spent a little while studying the photos of this bird because I find
> it particularly intriguing. On first inspection, this bird screams
> American Redstart to me. The pattern of gray on the head as well as the
> distribution of some of the yellow patches etc. all seem to fit this
> pretty well. For a variety of reasons, however, this bird simply does not
> fit a pure American Redstart very well. I think this is a hybrid though
> I'm not sure between what.
>
> I will just point out a couple of features for people to contemplate
> before I go back to studying the images (or actually being productive with
> my day?) One is that this bird seems to have a faint upper wingbar in
> several of the images. Another is the streaking on the sides, and finally
> is the pattern of the undertail coverts and tail. With all due respect to
> Michael Hobbs and his detailed dissection of the photos, I believe he is
> misinterpreting the tail and undertail coverts. I do not believe that the
> undertail coverts of this bird extend to the tip of the tail. They
> actually don't extend all that far and this bird is longer-tailed than I
> think an Oporornis warbler would be. Instead, it appears to me from the
> photographs that the light color is also on the underside of the retrices
> and extends to the tips in the center while there are dark corners. This
> is not at all a pattern expected on either a Redstart or an Oporornis,
> though there are a
> number of other species which would fit this pattern from the plates in
> Dunna and Garrett. I do believe that the size and shape of the bill would
> fit an American Redstart fairly well and does not need to be explained by
> an Oporornis parent. I think all of these characters will be important in
> trying to determine what might be the identity of the other parent.
>
> An intriguing bird for sure. Unfortunately I doubt we will ever reach a
> firm conclusion as to its identity at this stage of the game. I think Bob
> Sundstrom is on the right track and my best guess is that American
> Redstart is one of the parents but I'm curious to hear what other ideas
> might surface. Kudos to Collin for finding and documenting this bird!
>
> Michael
>
> Michael Dossett
> Corvallis, Oregon
> www.Mdossettphoto.com
> phainopepla at yahoo.com
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters