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Warbler NE Scotland (1 Viewer)

VarisIan

Well-known member
Whilst out doing my Breeding Bird Survey for the BTO this morning I found a pair of warblers flitting about in a bush beside the railway line. They looked like a dull whitethroat in that they were not as streaked on the wings nor was the throat white but more light beige. Nor was there a distict supercillium. They were making a slightly harsh "chrrk" sound.

Any help in ID'ing these would be very much appreciated.
 
A full description giving size, relative length of tail etc would be helpful. How do you know they were warblers? From your description juvenile Starling can't be ruled out. One of the first rules when coming across an unknown bird is to get a full description. Whitethroat doesn't have a supercillium nor does juvenile Starling. Both have pale throats and square ended tails. Have you ruled out juvenile Common Whitethroats? They should be out and about by now as well. Habitat sounds right.
 
Sorry Phil, I reckoned that by using Whitethroat as an example I was also giving a good guide as to size. Juvenile Starlings, of which there are plenty about, are considerably bigger than the birds I was looking at, which were very much the size and shape of other warblers I have seen such as Chiff Chaff, Willow Warbler and Whitethroat.

Juvenile Common Whitethroat would be a distinct possibility, I've only seen a few adults before.
 
Always nice to hear about people doing BBS!

Note that female and juvenile Whitethroats are much duller round the head than adult makes (though they still have the rusty back). The grating call you describe also suggests Whitethroat, so I'd recommend that you have a look in Collins to see if this could be what you saw. First impressions are often right!

By the way, do you have the BBS bird songs and calls CD? This is free to BBS volunteers - doesn't have Whitethroat call unfortunately, but could be useful in future? If you'd like this, probably best to email me at bbs (at) bto.org.

Thanks, Kate
 
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