The following are some photographs taken over the last several months from either Virginia or North Carolina.

I photographed the below Orange-crowned Warbler in Hopewell, VA on 11/29/22.  The bird displayed to my eye subtle characteristics that are not usually found with the “celata” subspecies we observe here routinely on the east coast.  The bright yellow coloration below, the yellow eye ring, the yellowish eye stripe and olive gray coloration above.  I reached out to David Irons (Oregon) for his insight on the bird.  He was very cautious, as is appropriate for possible out of range subspecies ID, that cannot be conclusively identified.   While he did not exclude that the bird could be a bright celata, he closed with “Subspecies assignments are always dicey, especially when you consider a species like Orange-crowned Warbler where the differences between the various taxa are pretty subtle. I would lean orestera on this bird based on what I can glean from the photos. ”  So I share this interesting observation for those who might be interested in the challenge.