BRDL 24

    2/16/22 - CAWA - Canada Warbler

This puzzle was a harder one for me, even using the bird guide. Almost didn't make it, guessing on the sixth try (complicating the guessing was that I entered 'CIWA' on a lark, which it turns out reperesents a citrine wagtail - a bird I have never heard of before, as it's mainly an Asian species. BRDL is supposed to represent, I think, mainly North American birds, but, no worries, learn something new every day! Per bird, citrine wagtails have shown up in America twice in the past 30 years, once in Mississippi, once outside of Sacramento)

Canada Warbler, though, the bird of the day, is another striking bird. My first sighting of a Canada warbler came in the Green Mountains, outside of Wells VT in 2008. Didn't see another one until 2020, in the shrubs around our local reservoir. It's a little yellow warbler with a striking eye ring and a broken 'necklace' of black on its yellow breast. I didn't know that it is one of the last warblers to arrive north, and first ones to head south. So much for that 'Canada' thing (although reportedly 82% of these warblers breed in Canada, so there's at least some connection)

By William H. Majoros - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16127252