Redstart Finished

Female Redstart showing the yellow breast and bright yellow patches under the wings.

We had a little bird hit the window yesterday and, sadly, she died.

Female Redstart showing the yellow wing and tail bars.

I’d never seen a bird like this in our yard before, and I couldn’t find it in any of my bird books, so I sought professional help from Jocelyn Hudon, the Ornthological Curator at the Royal Alberta Museum. Turns out it’s a female Redstart, and apparently a young one. Thanks so much, Jocelyn, for your help.

It looked like a warbler to me, but I was puzzled by the yellow tail bars. That’s a feature that I couldn’t match with any of our other many yellow vistors. The other red herring (pun very much intented) was the male Redstart who’s a bright red-orange color. Both my bird books and a Google image search produced lovely photos of him. The pattern of his markings match the yellow female, but his bright orange threw me off.

Lovely female Redstart with bright yellow markings.

While I appreciate the detailed view that you see in the photos, I would rather this little bird survived to grace us with only fleeting glimpses. Now that I know of the American Redstart’s presence here, I’m going to keep watching for another such visitor.