Few the past few days this bird has been living at our hummingbird feeder, sipping nectar and enjoying him/herself. Note a slender light beak, grey wings with no bars or stripes, yellow to white underside, no easily noticed eye bar or ring.
Candidates: Blue-winged Warbler dark legs, wingbars, eye line (not matching our bird) Northern Oriole aka Baltimore (Female) no white underside as seen on our bird, Summer Tanager (female) too heavy beak and markings off, your guess ???
Thanks to @jaykaydee @BoraZ @k1v1n @dcm @geomantic @underoak @mantruc @ghbrett @ybelanger @jpom We saw her again several times this morning and we’re sure she’s a Prothonotary Warbler far from water and loving hummingbird nectar
I vote for Prothonotary. No sign of wing bars, bright yellow breast, thin bill. Fascinating that it is visiting a hummingbird feeder.
btw:
The Prothonotary Warbler has quite a bit of political notoriety:
During the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in August of 1948, ex-communist Whittaker Chambers testified that he knew former State Department official Alger Hiss and accused him of being a communist and that they both engaged in espionage. To prove that they knew each other, Chambers recounted to the committee privately that Hiss once excitedly told him that he had seen a rare Prothonotary Warbler on the banks of the Potomac River near Glenn Echo Park , just outside of Washington, DC. (These days, they can be easily seen in the spring around Seneca (mile 23) on the C&O Canal.) At one point, Richard Nixon asked Hiss if he had any hobbies and he replied they were tennis and ornithology. Congressman John McDowell, a birder himself, jumped in: “Did you ever see a Prothonotary Warbler?” Hiss fell into the trap and responded, “I have–right here on the Potomac.” This bit of information helped convince the committee that Hiss and Chambers knew each other.
/Peter Vankevich
I totally agree with Prothonotary Warber. I also work in wildlife rehab and have seen them up close. This is it. Sally Lockwood