Watching for the MacGillivray's maybe

Back to the Magic Hedge today to see if we could find the female MacGillivray’s Warbler that’s been reported there. It’s a western bird, a rarity that would be very far from home. As soon as we arrived, we saw a group of about 10 people watching the hole on the north side of the hedge. That’s where they’d been seeing the MacGillivray’s. A few warblers were darting in and out of the bushes, and the first one we saw was a BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER.

Moments later someone pointed out the MACGILLIVRAY’S WARBLER — or at least the purported MacGillivray’s. The alpha birder there was Jim Landing, one of the top birders in Chicago. He shares the current lifetime record for the most birds seen in Illinois at 395. Jim told us there have been reported Illinois sightings of this warbler in the past, but none have been accepted. So this bird might be the first. The tricky thing is that the female MacGillivray’s looks a lot like the mourning warbler. I won’t go into all the diagnostic details, but since there’s always variation even in a single species, there’s inevitable overlap in two species that are so close.

The good news is that a lot of people saw this bird, and there are a lot of photos. It’s not just an unrecorded look by a single birder or two. Jim said the final decision is with a committee of the Illinois Audubon Society. They’ll look at all the photos and come up with a decision in a month or two.

My guess is that they’ll decide it’s a mourning. Committees like this tend to be very conservation (which is good), and with a bird so far out of its range, it’s much more likely to be a mourning than a MacGillivray’s. So we’re not counting it until we hear the committee’s decision. The MacGillivray’s would have been Little Year bird number 254, and let’s hope I get to stick it in that slot in a month or two.

Anyway, we saw two more warblers while there: and OVENBIRD (temporarily, I hope, at number 254) and a female BAY-BREASTED WARBLER. This second bird was a tough call, but Jim helped us out, so I’m satisfied and don’t need no stinking committee.