Worm-eating Warbler: seen again with sunlight


I met a small group of intrepid birders from northern Colorado (mostly Denver area) who came to look for this rare vagrant warbler this morning. In mid-morning the Worm-eating Warbler vocalized for a short period of time and several of us got very brief, fleeting views of it as it flew along the bottom of a thicket of limbs and vines then vanished. Two of us stayed but were birding our way down the trail at 12:30 (MST) right by where it had moved to (a good 100 feet east of where we had seen it earlier and had been watching). And what a better spot on the north side of the trail where some sunlight was filtering through so we got several very good views and I got this much better pic. Please note that since the lighting was better the only thing I did to the pic was to crop it to enlarge it and did no other editing--so what you see is what the camera saw and what I recollect seeing. And what a surprise---instead of skulking close to the ground in the shady south side of the trail (which is a north facing hill that the sun rarely reaches) it foraged above the ground in fairly good light. It even flew up to a limb of a large cottonwood that was 25 or so feet above the ground where it probed in a crevice for the larvae and worms it eats. It then flew back across to the south side of the trail and back west, stopping for a minute on a tree about 15 feet above the ground where we got more views, to the thicket where I first spotted it! And during these views and movement it vocalized the 'z,z,,z' like calls I heard yesterday plus an abbreviated version. Two more birders from the Colorado Springs area had arrived a little before and we summoned them back where one got good views. We stayed a little longer in hopes the Worm-eating Warbler would make another appearance so the second birder who didn't get a good view might see it but it had not when we left. SeEtta

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