Angela

I would not have noticed the gray back (the All About Birds ID guide says yellow-green) or the streaked breast on this yellow warbler if I had not taken the time to draw from the photo. With the color photo, I tend to gloss over the nuances and see just yellow. With the pencil sketch, I can more easily point out the different colorings and markings and use these color patterns to not only confirm the ID of Yellow Warbler but the region, age, and sex (Northern adult male) as well. This explains why I prefer field guides that illustrate with drawings rather than photographs.