Golden-winged x Blue-winged Warbler (hybrid) (Vermivora chrysoptera x cyanoptera) (1)
- Reported Aug 17, 2025 08:55 by Forrest Wickman
- Prospect Park, Kings, New York
- Map:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=p&z=13&q=40.6602841,-73.9689534&ll=40.6602841,-73.9689534- Checklist:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S267897223- Comments: "Rare, although possibly also underreported given how commonly these two species hybridize. On the peninsula. Seen from below, and both times saw combination of stylish black mascara (like Blue-winged), yellow breast (like Blue-winged, but faded and less extensive), and gray belly (like Golden-winged), giving a briefly brain-scrambling impression that nonetheless clicked into place pretty quickly. (I suppose it was a closest match for a first-generation female Brewster's, but I believe the genetics are too messy to really be sure about that kind of label, and indeed the belly was a little more gray than I think would be textbook for that. Sometimes these guys are just kinda weirdos.) Second glimpse of it, pishing it back down for the second time, immediately confirmed that initial impression, though both times it only appeared briefly above in the canopy, in a mixed flock with black-and-whites, redstarts, yellow warblers, and a Blue-Winged Warbler. (The seemingly pure Blue-Winged was much brighter and more consistently yellow underneath, with a clean demarcation between the yellow breast and belly and the bright white undertail.) I lingered in the area for more than 30 minutes longer hoping to get photos, after whiffing the first two times—I really dislike reporting rarities without photos or audio—but it was no longer interested in my pishing, and in my experience Golden-Wingeds and hybrids on migration often appear only briefly, to a lucky few, before going poof. Happy to downgrade to Blue-Winged/Golden-Winged if we don't want to confirm this without photos, but I've seen hybrids at least a couple of times in very similar contexts before (same time of year, some area of the park), and don't see what else it could be…"
"The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last for ever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year - the days when summer is changing into autumn - the crickets spread the rumour of sadness and change."
E.B. White, Charlotte's Web
