Birds Of Southern California

Painted Redstart (Myioborus pictus)

The Painted Redstart is perhaps one of the most stunning warblers to visit the Orange County and Southern California areas. It's infrequent visits draw numerous birders to its location. In the times I've personally seen this warbler, its quite active as it weaves in and out of branches in search of food especially the Painted Redstart that was photographed at Irvine Lake during winter 2015/2016. Photographs of this specific visitor are included in this photo section. Preening intervals were every 20 to 30 minutes and they could last several minutes. Vocalizations were clearly heard from the Irvine Lake (IR) visitor but none that I recall from the Irvine Valley College (IVC) visitor. Also of note the ragged condition of the IVC visitor. Here's more from Wikipedia: The painted whitestart is the largest of the whitestarts, measuring 15 cm (5.9 in) in length and weighing between 5.9–9.6 g (0.21–0.34 oz). The sexes are the same in plumage, though males average slightly larger than females. The adult is mostly black, with a bright red lower breast and belly, large white wing patches, white outer tail feathers and white crescents below its eyes. The bill and legs are blackish.[5] The juvenile painted whitestart lacks the red belly and glossy black plumage of the adult. It is brownish-gray overall, with a paler belly and undertail coverts, and a pale cream or buff tinge to its wing patches. More can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painted_whitestart