Dendroica caerulescens

A bird in the hand is worth a thousand words, especially when it comes to photographing them with a basic digital camera without fancy lenses. After complaining to androkles about my inability to photograph our North American birds to show off to him, I had an opportunity yesterday.

It was a big bird day for me, as Jon drove me on my annual route to collect data for the Breeding Bird Survery. We had to get out of bed at 4 a.m. and spend four hours driving 40 km, with me hopping out of the car every so often to look, listen and write down what I observed. I counted about 52 species.

After we got back to the cottage, Jon went back to bed. That is when this lovely fellow hit a window and I had a chance to snap some photographs.

Without rival, wood warblers are the feathered jewels of eastern North American forests. The black-throated blue warbler, Dendroica caerulescens, is one of the most striking. As you can see, he is barely as long as my middle finger.

Only minutes before the accident I had heard his raspy song in the undergrowth. I found him lying on his back, his left eyeball grossly distented with blood. I didn't think he would survive. But he seemed alert when I held him on my palm, and swallowed some drops of water from my finger. He sat for more than an hour on a table on the porch, but when I went to pick him up again, he flew and perched on a branch overhead. An hour later he had vanished. Whether he will live long with such a bad head injury, and obviously blind in one eye, I don't know. But birds are much tougher than they seem.

Black-throated blue warblers nest in undergrowth on the forest floor. The female is mostly brown but has the same white wing patch. They are common, but still a treat to the eye.