[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2014] – This first fall female Blackburnian Warbler Setophaga fusca was found by Mark Billings on 21 September 2014 in Friendship Park, Chula Vista. I made a quick visit the next day and connected with the warbler after a tip-off from Curtis Marantz and Matt Sadowski. I arrived to find them watching the warbler but as soon as I got out of my car it bolted into the interior of the tree! It was lost for some time in the dense pine tree needles but eventually reemerged working along lower branches of the tree.
In several of the photographs the tidily streaked brown back can be seen along with the distinguishing paler tram lines also running down the back. It appears to be a first fall female, not heavily marked about the head, with wishy-washy yellowish-buff coloration suffusing the throat and upper chest, and dull brown coloration about the crown, nape, auricular, and shoulder. On a couple occasions we heard its buzzy flight call as it flitted around the pine tree harassed by an intolerant male Townsend’s Warbler.
Blackburnian Warbler – Friendship Park, Chula Vista, San Diego County, California 22 Sep 2014
Blackburnian Warbler – Friendship Park, Chula Vista, San Diego County, California 22 Sep 2014
Blackburnian Warbler – Friendship Park, Chula Vista, San Diego County, California 22 Sep 2014
Blackburnian Warbler – Friendship Park, Chula Vista, San Diego County, California 22 Sep 2014
Blackburnian Warbler – Friendship Park, Chula Vista, San Diego County, California 22 Sep 2014
Blackburnian Warbler – Friendship Park, Chula Vista, San Diego County, California 22 Sep 2014
Blackburnian Warbler – Friendship Park, Chula Vista, San Diego County, California 22 Sep 2014
Blackburnian Warbler – Friendship Park, Chula Vista, San Diego County, California 22 Sep 2014
Thank you so much for all of the Photos and sightings.
I would think a very rare bird indeed for SD. Congratulations on getting good shots of it.
Excellent photos. Thanks you.
There was one here in PB today. Had trouble identifyiing it until I found this site so thanks for posting. It was in a huge Ficus tree but I was able to get some snapshots. This one had brghter yellow and darker brown around the eye than the one in your photos.