By Boysenberry45
A Blackburnian Warbler is more vibrantly colored and tinier in real life than you could ever imagine — like a flying jewel!
Most of them have already passed through Central Park on their way from Central and South America to their northern breeding grounds, but if you are lucky, you may still catch a glimpse of one. The males are the only North American warblers with a flaming orange throat and distinctive black-and-white markings. The females and juveniles are less brilliantly colored in the spring and all of them are a bit drabber when they return in the fall as they head back to their southern climes.
Look for them high up in the treetops or low down when sipping water or taking a bath, at Laupot or Triplets Bridge, or in the Loch in Central Park. They are named after Anne Blackburne, a British naturalist in the 1700s. If there were a reddish-purple warbler, what a thrill it would be to have it called a Boysenberrian!
To read WSR’s other Central Park Birding Reports, click here.
I sort of saw one this Spring – a look at the belly with a small and quick glimpse of its throat as it was on a branch high above me. I won’t count it as a lifer until I get a better view.
Bosenberry45: Thank you for these precious gifts!
Thank you for posting this picture of such a beautiful bird. I never knew! wow!
The peregrine falcon parents who nested at 86th and WEA have 4 fledglings according to the many people I saw with binoculars and cameras with telephoto lenses as I walked down WEA this afternoon.
Thanks for featuring this bird, truly spectacular! NYC is so lucky to have such beautiful birds passing through on their migration routes. I have missed the birding season the spring due to illness so I am especially happy for these reports. Thank you West Side Rag! And kudos on your new format 🙂