Florida bird ID help

April 2, 2019 6:40 AM

This handsome little friend has been eating my loquats for the past two days. What kind of bird is it?

We're in Northeast Florida, very close to the coast. Online bird ID guides have been singularly unhelpful; everything that I can find that looks even remotely like it seems to live exclusively in California or Southern Texas. Yellow chest, brownish/olive head with a slightly pronounced horizontal stripe through the eyes, and either dark gray or dark brown wings with noticeable white patches/stripes. Probably around 5-6 inches long. Perches on a branch and takes stabs at the fruit with a closed beak and a kind of heaving motion, then seems to be taking little nibbles inside the pierced fruit. Who's our new neighbor?

posted by saladin to Science & Nature (6 answers total)

Best answer: I'm thinking pine warbler.
posted by Redstart at 6:48 AM on April 2, 2019 [3 favorites]

Best answer: It's definitely a warbler and from there it gets a bit tricky. Maybe pine, maybe Orange-crowned? Here's a post from Jacksonville in January with good photos of loquat-nomming warblers. And a glance at eBird may help you narrow it down based on other people's reports.
posted by holgate at 7:02 AM on April 2, 2019 [3 favorites]

If it has white on the wings I think that rules out orange-crowned.
posted by Redstart at 7:08 AM on April 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Blue-Winged Warbler is also an outside possibility, though the wings would be more blue-grey than brown-grey.
posted by Johnny Assay at 12:55 PM on April 2, 2019

Best answer: Also looks like it could be a female Magnolia Warbler. It is hard to say because the various warblers can look similar, and coloration can vary.
posted by bananana at 6:18 PM on April 2, 2019

Response by poster: Little buddy was back today but I didn't manage to get a picture. I'm satisfied that it's A) definitely a warbler or some kind, and B) either a Pine, Magnolia, or maybe even a Blue-Winged, with slightly less than typical markings (may be transitioning from juvenile to adult or something, who knows).

Thanks everybody!
posted by saladin at 1:19 PM on April 3, 2019