Eastern YB Chat

[Steven Mlodinow]

Greetings All
I was birding Park County today. Not the best day for that...

But I digress. The bird I called an Eastern YB Chat is likely an intergrade between Eastern and Western. It had the very short white submalar that is the classic mark for Eastern. And a greenish back. Also a solid Eastern mark. However the yellow beneath was quite bright, a mark for Western but not Eastern. Finally, Nick Moore had looked at a number of photos online and suggested that the yellow underparts are more extensive in Eastern birds. I agree. I could find no Eastern birds with yellow (in extent) beneath like a Western. A few Westerns have more extensive yellow below, thus resembling an Eastern. So, the underparts trend strongly towards Western, whilst the malar white was incorrect for Western and the back trended towards Western leaving this bird unidentifiable. It almost certainly had Eastern genes, but alas...
Best Wishes
Back home in Longmont
Steven Mlodinow


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