Beginner's Guide To British Warblers? (1 Viewer)

I have just been reading up the different warblers in the Collins and simplified the characteristics to try and learn to differentiate these tricky birds. Here is what I came up with, I will appreciate any advice or corrections. Species in capitals are common British Warblers and the species listed have occurred in Britain.

SYLVIA WARBLERS.

Habitat : Scrubland, thickets, heathland, woodland.

Structure : Narrow square ended tail, peaked crowns, dark heads, fluffed up throats.

Species : GARDEN WARBLER, Barred Warbler, BLACKCAP, Orphean Warbler, LESSER WHITETHRAOT, Sardinian Warbler, Ruppell’s Warbler, COMMON WHITETHROAT, Spectacled Warbler, Subalpine Warbler, Desert Warbler, DARTFORD WARBLER, Marmora’s Warbler.


ACROCEPHALUS WARBLERS

Habitat : Open swamps or marshes in reed beds or small bushes.

Structure : Elegant slim build, long thin and pointed bills, flattish crowns. brownish upper parts, whitish underparts, no white on tails, long undertail coverts.

Species : SEDGE WARBLER, Aquatic Warbler, Moustached Warbler, EUROPEAN REED WARBLER, Marsh Warbler, Blyth’s Reed Warbler, Paddyfield Warbler, Great Reed Warbler, Thick Billed Warbler.


LOCUSTELLA WARBLERS

Habitat : Low vegetation such as tussocks often near water.

Structure : Similar to Acrocephalus, rounder and broader tails, streaked plumage, long undertail coverts.

Species : COMMON GRASSHOPPER WARBLER, Lanceolated Warbler, Palla’s Grasshopper Warbler, River Warbler, Savi’s Warbler


HIPPOLAIS WARBLERS

Habitat : Woods or in vegetation & bushes close to woods.

Structure : Closely related to Acrocephalus with squarer ended tails, wide base to bill, brownish or greenish grey upper parts, dirty white or yellowish white underparts, plain lores and face.

Species : Icterine Warbler, Melodious Warbler, Olivaceous Warbler, Booted Warbler (not plain faced), Syke's Warbler.


PHYLLOSCOPUS WARBLERS

Habitat : Woodlands with nests on ground.

Structure : Small, slim billed and legged, narrow & short square ended tail. Brownish or greenish upper parts, white or yellowish white underparts, some have narrow wing bar, pale white or yellow supercilium.

Species : WILLOW WARBLER, WOOD WARBLER, Western Bonelli’s Warbler, Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler, CHIFFCHAFF, (Siberian Chiffchaff), Iberian Chiffchaff, Dusky Warbler, Radde’s Warbler, Arctic Warbler, Greenish Warbler, Two-narred Greenish Warbler, Green Warbler, Yellow-browed Warbler, Hume’s Leaf Warbler, Pallas’s Warbler.

I presume when someone mentions a Leaf Warbler that is a reference to a Phylloscopus?

Andrew said:

I presume when someone mentions a Leaf Warbler that is a reference to a Phylloscopus?

Click to expand...

Hi Andy,

Yes. Phylloscopus, Greek, phyllos (leaf) + scopus (watch), so 'Leaf watcher'

Michael

PS you forgot to capitalise Wood, Chiff & Willow

Sylvia warblers also in woodland (Blackcap in particular)

Yes, leaf warblers are phylloscs, incidentally I'd go for greenish or brownish upperparts for these rather than grey or green.

Booted warbler has been split now so the birds in the Collins Guide labelled rama are noe Hippolais rama or Syke's Warbler. Ditto Bonelli's Warbler which is now Eastern Bonellis (orientalis) and Western Bonellis (bonelli). Splitting amongst the Sylvias is in the air too.

If you are adding Siberian Chiffchaff you may also want to add Green Warbler and Two-barred Greenish Warbler (subspp nitidus and plumbeitarsus respectively) as both have occurred in Britain.

Under Acrocephalus and especially Locustella i'd add long undertail coverts - these can really alter the appearance of the rear end of a bird, even when it's viewed in profile so that the full length can't be seen. Under Hippolais i'd add plain lores (creating an open faced expression) though Booted Warbler bucks this trend and some unstreaked acrocephalus can appear plain lored (though Reed Warbler doesn't tend to) and Thick-billed always is.

Also, all Locustella have a thin pale outer web to the outer primary which can be surprisingly easy to see - if you can actually see the bird that is.

The most common intergeneric pitfalls often involve Garden Warbler being misidentified as Acrocephalus or more often Hippolais. A more serious problem is distinguishing some Olivaceous Warblers from some unstreaked Acrocephalus but this is seldom likely to be a problem in Devon!

MV

Booted warbler is a real problem, in that it's a hippolais that looks like a phylloscopus, and may even be reclassified as an acrocephalus!!!

It's a good idea Andrew to try and sort out these differences/ habitats etc. Just remember that you'll always get the odd bird turning up in strange places, especially on migration. The classic is Reed Warblers in bushes. I've been to more hippolais shouts on Scilly that turn out to be Reed Warbler than I care to remember!

Darrell

Thanks for the advice and I have made adjustments. I hope it all seems better now?

Darrell, recently I was flummoxed by a Reed Warbler in gorse on the coast of Guernsey and frantically scanned each warbler before identifying it!

Can you make a chart out of that information, Andrew? I only work from charts for warblers, gulls, shearwaters, peep, etc.

I think there is too much overlap of habitats to amke a chart work.

Very useful post,Andrew.Seeing the information set out in this fashion was very informative for what must be the most tricky group to I.D.

Peeps, I have decided to act on Charles suggestion of a chart and will make one sometime next week by hand in a desktop program then scan it as a Jpeg file and post it here. Keep watching!

That a nice piece of work, Andrew.

In the paperback version of the Inskipps' 'birds of the Indian subcontinent' there are some charts for helping the identification of some tricky warblers.

Dave

It would be interesting to see that.

Thats excellent stuff Andrew ..... watching this with interest.

I've got my head round a few but it's not easy at all, any help or pointers is always appreciated.

WARBLER CHART.

This is the best I can manage, any advice on modifications will be appreciated and taken on board. I hope this proves useful to some of us.

Hey, that's neat, Andrew. I pulled a couple of copies to stick in my guides and I'll see how it matches up to our species here. I, too, await the comments of the experts.

Iberian chiffchaff needs to be added to your list as it is the most likely (if not already can't remember) to be split.

Iberian Chiffchaff has been split.

Hippolais Warblers have short undertail coverts and I wouldn't really describe them as slim.

There are actually exceptions to most of your rules which makes me think that the complexity of the subject does not lend itself to simplification of this sort - it'd be nice if it did though.

MV

In fact,Andrew's chart does not describe Hippolais Warblers as slim.They are not 'rules',but ID aids for 'Beginners' as the thread heading states.
I think the chart needs to be expanded to individual species rather than groups,which would be more informative.
If that were done,then one thought I had,whilst fully appreciating that the subject is complex,is whether each 'box' could be denoted in degrees of matching.For example if each box had from 1 to 3 ticks,3 being the maximum,then Sedge warbler would have 3 ticks in the column for white supercilium and Reed warbler 1 tick.
Just a few thoughts to try and more easily categorise a tricky group.

I tried to simplify the complex which is quite impossible to an extent. Basically the chart directs you to the most likely fitting warbler family and then you have less bird possibilities to be confused by.

Peeps, the modification suggestions have been taken into consideration. So if you printed out a chart then reprint the new one.