A couple of weeks ago I had an exciting moment as a birder; I apparently spotted and recorded the first sighting of an Audubon’s Warbler in the Northwest Territories!
The Audubon’s warbler is a sub-species of the Yellow-rumped warbler, the other is the Myrtle warbler, however 40 years ago they were 2 separate species. According to a local bird expert, there is renewed research among taxonomists and Yellow-rumped Warblers will likely be split into two separte species once again some time in the near future.
This sighting puts this bird very far NE of range, as their northernmost range is typically only about 2/3rds up BC. I have no idea how or why this little guy wound up here as the temperatures have not been warm by any stretch of the imagination but a few early spring storms may have offered him a spectacular tail wind and pushed him north. Hard to say for sure.
The Yellow-rumped Warbler is a beautiful bird no matter which sub-species you’re looking at. One of the first spring birds I was ever able to identify after moving to the Territory was the Myrtle. They are “friendly” in that if you sit still long enough in a place where they are out and about they will go about feeding and calling mere feet away. This provides many excellent opportunities to observe these colourful birds up close which also makes for great photo ops.
I am looking forward to seeing this little bird at least once more and wondering if there’s a chance to observe a mate. Questions abound as to whether he will mate with a Myrtle, whether he’ll be left out of the game, or whether he might have his own mate somewhere nearby. I’ll keep you posted about any new developments.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed the photos.