Mourning Warbler

Grey Doe Trail, Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton ON. May 29^th.^.2021. Steady driving rain yesterday came close to snow a couple of times. It was not a day to be outside, it was a day for catching up instead.

This morning was a bit warmer but a cold northerly wind tugged at tree tops and the spring-green world looked bruised. I did a long and pleasant transect, with lots of birds but in two hours didn’t see another soul. Instead the day rewarded me with some heartwarming bird sightings including: A Northern Flicker atop a spruce, a Pileated Woodpecker working over an old birch stump and a Scarlet Tanager high in a leaf-bare ash.

In a dense woodland, a small, clear-toned and complex song from low in a dense tangle of brambles caught my attention. It was nearly, but not quite, familiar.  In my mind I sorted through all the likely warbler songs but none that I could think of was a fit. I tried to get the bird’s attention but all it did was move behind me staying out of sight and firing off a couple more snippets of song. Many unproductive minutes later I shrugged and decided to leave; but sensing my near-surrender, the bird warbled briefly to prolong the challenge. It circled me, staying low most of the time until finally I got this glimpse, a Mourning Warbler; I smiled to myself, it had been well worth my persistence.

Mourning Warblers have a fairly distinctive song but this one’s was a little off, at least that’s my excuse. They are a handsome, if somewhat sombre looking, bird and well deserving of the name, with the male having solid yellow underparts, pinkish legs, and a dusky grey hood turning to a blackish facemask. I suspect this one to be a younger male, perhaps hatched last year, because its belly seems a little duller yellow than expected.  Mourning Warblers are reportedly fairly common but rarely seen because of their reclusive and evasive habits. They prefer exactly the kind of dense, second growth tangles I found it in today and when found are always a bit of a triumph. It was easily My Bird of the Day.