Yellow-rumped Warblers

This past April I didn't update my blog for several weeks, and it was because I took a 3-week, 5,000+  mile driving trip down through the American Southwest.  I'll try to start a series of birds I photographed on that trip.

The following images were taken at the Malheur NWR in south-central Oregon.  I was disappointed in the habitat but managed to get a lot of photos of warblers... more than I thought I would ever get in my lifetime.  Warblers are notoriously difficult to photograph but I found a small migrant trap where there was a very abundant supply, and in a couple hours of photographing I managed to take over a hundred photos.  I've probably retained about half that many, but most are quality photos.

The overwhelming majority of warblers were Yellow-rumped warblers and most seemed to be male.  They seemed to be about evenly divided between the Audubon race and the Myrtle race.  For posting purposes I pretty much just picked some representative photos from the bunch, but there are a lot more where these came from!

First up, a photo of the Myrtle race.  I introduce this first so that you can see where the species got its name.  Both sexes and both races of this species share this yellow patch on the rump, although it may not be immediately evident in all postures.  

 

This next bird is also a Myrtle race as evidenced  by the white throat. 

Finally, an Audubon's race as evidenced by the yellow throat.

 Next up... Ruby-crowned kinglets which I photographed at the same place and time.