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Young Birders - ABA Sponsors Foliage can be quite the impediment
to identifying birds. How many times have you had just a little
hole through which to see a bird. You actually can see the bird
quite well; it's just facing "the wrong way." Then it moves up,
hidden! You think, "Should I pish?" "Should I wait and see if it
moves up?" Then, while you're contemplating the strange
combination of your pishing skills, ABA's code of Ethics, and
your inability to imitate a screech-owl, the little guy flies
away-into the unknown! You're left thinking, "If only I had
studied Tom Schultz's warbler tail plates in that warbler guide
I could have identified this; well, that is, if it was a
warbler!" But here we have the little guy frozen in time.
Awkwardly frozen, but frozen nevertheless. We can actually see a
lot, a bright yellow throat, paler belly, bright white undertail
coverts and grayish, maybe blue-gray upperparts. Verdin may come
to mind, but that specie