Have you seen an orange-crowned warbler?  Have you ever seen his crown?

Orange-crowned warblers (Oreothlypis celata) are difficult to identify because they are so dull.  They’re drab grayish-yellow or olive-yellow birds with no wing bars and no obvious field marks except for yellow undertail coverts, very pointy beaks (like so many other warblers) and faint gray eyelines.

Like ruby-crowned kinglets, orange-crowned warblers don’t raise their head feathers unless they’re excited.  Kinglets are often excited but these warblers are calm.  I’d never seen an orange crown … until now.

Thanks to David Amamoto we can finally see how the bird got his name.  Great photo, David!

Click here and scroll down to see more orange-crowned warblers and the birds they resemble.

(photo by David Amamoto)