A mixed flock of birds were moving along the pond lily trail. There were chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, brown creepers, golden-crowned kinglets, ruby-crowned kinglets and one other species. The other species had a similar look and flight pattern to a ruby-crowned, but it was a little bigger. It captured an insect, and I was able to get a couple of photos as it paused to eat it. It was a Hutton’s Vireo.
There are subtle differences between the two. The ruby-crowned kinglet has a thinner bill. It also has black bar below its lower, white wing bar, and the Hutton’s vireo doesn’t. In addition, I feel the ruby-crowned kinglet seems to have slightly more zip as it flits between branches.
I’ll be interested to see if the Hutton’s Vireo sticks around the arboretum during the breeding season. I found an interesting article by Kenn Kaufman online where he states: “Hutton's Vireo is a permanent resident to the extent that some individuals occur in all parts of the breeding range throughout the year. However, there is a substantial amount of wandering during the nonbreeding seasons.1”
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
Hutton’s Vireo
1. Kenn Kaufman, “Field Identification of Hutton's Vireo,” Continental Birdlife, Volume I, Number 3, June 1979: 62-66.
https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/ContBird_Vol1_No3_02.pdf