Confusing Fall Warbler

Roger Tory Peterson, the Bronx’s great contribution to ornithology, has a couple of famous-in-the-field pages in his field guide called “Confusing Fall Warblers, etc.” On their way south, the warblers have left their breeding plumage behind them, so they are not nearly as dramatic as in the spring. Juvenile birds, born this spring and summer, and females, will usually may have different plumage patterns than the adult males. Hence, it can be a challenge to ID one of these fast-moving small birds if you’re not a hard-core bird dog.

Recently in Brooklyn Bridge Park, I found one for you. Big clues are that incomplete eye-ring, dark eye-line, and pale eyebrow. Also, the yellow under the tail. It becomes a process of elimination. This is a Palm Warbler, Dendroica palmarum.

Um, I think…