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Orange-Crowned Warbler
Scientific Name: Vermivora celata
Pictures: (click for larger images)
-Photos by Jason Finley
-Illustration by Robert C. Stebbins from "Birds of the Campus" (1947) by Dr. Loye Miller.
Description: Small. 5" in length (beak to tail), smaller than a sparrow. A little bird with a dark eye and a pointy little beak. Greenish-yellow, lighter underneath and darker on back (even grayish). Some light yellow streaking on the breast.
Sound: Listen to an Orange-crowned Warbler singing! Link is to the sound page for this bird from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds.
Commonality/Seasonality: Rare, but year-round.
Location: UCLA Botanical Garden, and probably Stone Canyon Creek (behind Anderson School). But these guys could be found elsewhere on campus too. I saw one come a few times to the bottlecrush tree just outside of Ackerman Union on Bruin Walk.
Notes: Don't bother looking for the orange crown on these guys, you won't see it. It IS there, but it's apparently hardly ever visible. It doesn't even seem that they flick it up on a regular basis like the Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Oh well.
These guys can be hard to spot because they're the same color as many leaves, so they blend in very well, but you may hear one at some point and be able to find it hopping around in a tree.
Historical: Dr. Loye Miller wrote about the "Lutescent Warbler " as it was known back then:
This little green bird first appeared (appropriately) on St. Patrick's Day (1942), singing in the new willow grove below the bridge. May his tribe increase; and it should, for he is abundant farther up stone canyon creek.
-Miller, Loye. "Birds of the Campus, University of California, Los Angeles," from University of California Syllabus Series, No. 300. Text by Loye Miller, illustrations by Robert C. Stebbins. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1947.
