Blue-winged Warbler 9/20/06

Blue-winged Warblers like this one pictured here are annual birds here at Kiptopeke but we usually catch them in August so it was a bit of a surprise that we caught this one on the 20th of September. They are always beautiful birds. The ten year average for Blue-wings here is about 4 birds a season. The most banded in a season during the last ten years was in 2001 when 7 individuals were banded. So far this season, we have banded two.
This little fella has a bit of a yellow wash to both wing bars. Although it is not safe to say this bird has no Golden-winged Warbler genes, most to all of the Blue-wings we capture here have this light yellow wash to the greater and median coverts. This bird is also a hatch year bird which might play a part in the yellow wash.