Jane Turner
Well-known member
Another one from this year. Gave me a huge fright this one! Would welcome comments, especially if you have ever seen anything like this!
I was walking through the poplar stand at the north end of Red Rocks marsh when I noticed a Sylvia warbler lift off the ground and settle in a tree ahead of me. The bird was more or less directly into the sun, making it hard to pick up much on the plumage, but what I did get made me seriously consider Spectacled Warbler. It had a strongly contrasting white side to the throat, quite strongly suffused (colour not determined on this view) upper breast and contrastingly darker ear-coverts like a Lesser Whitethroat. What bothered me about the bird was its size and structure, being not noticeably different from Whitethroat. Before I saw much more of it the bird flipped a fence into a private garden. I tried to convince myself that I might have misjudged the size and decided to back off onto a convenient sand dune and stake it out.
Eventually the bird came back into view and was seen in the company of, though not interacting with, the resident pair of Whitethroats. This in itself may be significant since the resident male became highly agitated in the presence of a 4th Whitethroat that appeared in the area. I watched it from about 60ft through 8x42 Leicas in good light for about 25 minutes in total over three hours. I quickly ruled out Spectacled Warbler and then Ruppell’s and Sardinian Warbler. Despite it looking really rare, I couldn’t make it into anything but a strangely plumaged Whitethroat.
Description:
Structure, size jizz. Identical to resident Whitethroats in build, though feathering appeared loose and the bird was in general rather scrawny. Though hard to tell precise size I think it was about the same size as the Whitethroats. Habits and jizz were indistinguishable from Whitethroat. Wing-structure indistinguishable from Whitethroats.
Upperparts: Forehead and crown grey, similar tone but darker than the local male Whitethroat. The ear coverts, and especially the lores, were contrastingly darker, charcoal grey. A whitish eye-ring was present, more prominent than it appears in the illustration. The whole effect of the head was very like male Spectacled Warbler. The grey of the crown continued onto the mantle where it gradually became just slightly browner on the lower fringe, but still was distinctly greyer than the male Whitethroats present. The primaries and greater coverts were darkish, with rather dull pale warm sandy brown narrow edges, nothing like a bright or as rufous as the Whitethroats present. The tertials, which I was looking at closely to eliminate Spectacled warbler were very unusual. They were dark blackish brown with rather crisp pale edges, varying between sandy to almost white at the tips, nothing like Spectacled Warbler, or for that matter Whitethroat. They most closely resembled a cleaner centred version of Subalpine Warbler. The alula also stood out quite strongly against the rest of the wing. The feathers were blackish with crisp narrow whitish edges, most prominent on the outer webs. The tail appeared similar to Whitethroat. The back and rump were masked by the tertials most of the time and I cannot say conclusively what colour they were. Its not that I did not see them, the just did not stand out. I regretted drawing the bird with its wings dropped slightly since I had to make a guess at the colour of the rump!
Underparts: The throat was contrastingly pale while the upper breast had a quite strong vinous wash, slightly more intense and “plummy” than the male Whitethroats. The flanks also had a pinky wash but the lower belly was white, not contrasting with the under tail coverts, unlike the local birds. In some lights there was a visible contrast between the off white throat centres and the pure white sides, reminiscent of sub-moustacials of a female Subalpine Warbler.
Soft parts: Bill Darkish with flesh base and legs horn, indistinguishable from Whitethroat. The eye was dark brown and there was definitely no coloured skin around the eye.
Call: Only call given was a scolding “charrr” just like the other Whitethroats.
I was vaguely aware of the existence of Eastern races of Whitethroat, notably S.c.icterops since a few years ago news broke of a singing male Spectacled Warbler at Aberdaron. On closer scrutiny that bird turned out to be a probable Eastern Whitethroat. I told the few people that I had alerted when I first stumbled into the bird that that was what I thought it was, and went home. To my shame I do not own the Shirihai Sylvia book, but reference to Svensson, Williamson and the handbook suggested nothing out of keeping with an icterops Whitethroat.
I have no idea how separable the race is in the field, however I felt that the record was sufficiently interesting to wite up. There was a Red-backed Shrike at the same location the day before and South Stack, which hosted a Black Lark a few days later is in view (well it would be if the Great Orme wasn’t in the way!)
I was walking through the poplar stand at the north end of Red Rocks marsh when I noticed a Sylvia warbler lift off the ground and settle in a tree ahead of me. The bird was more or less directly into the sun, making it hard to pick up much on the plumage, but what I did get made me seriously consider Spectacled Warbler. It had a strongly contrasting white side to the throat, quite strongly suffused (colour not determined on this view) upper breast and contrastingly darker ear-coverts like a Lesser Whitethroat. What bothered me about the bird was its size and structure, being not noticeably different from Whitethroat. Before I saw much more of it the bird flipped a fence into a private garden. I tried to convince myself that I might have misjudged the size and decided to back off onto a convenient sand dune and stake it out.
Eventually the bird came back into view and was seen in the company of, though not interacting with, the resident pair of Whitethroats. This in itself may be significant since the resident male became highly agitated in the presence of a 4th Whitethroat that appeared in the area. I watched it from about 60ft through 8x42 Leicas in good light for about 25 minutes in total over three hours. I quickly ruled out Spectacled Warbler and then Ruppell’s and Sardinian Warbler. Despite it looking really rare, I couldn’t make it into anything but a strangely plumaged Whitethroat.
Description:
Structure, size jizz. Identical to resident Whitethroats in build, though feathering appeared loose and the bird was in general rather scrawny. Though hard to tell precise size I think it was about the same size as the Whitethroats. Habits and jizz were indistinguishable from Whitethroat. Wing-structure indistinguishable from Whitethroats.
Upperparts: Forehead and crown grey, similar tone but darker than the local male Whitethroat. The ear coverts, and especially the lores, were contrastingly darker, charcoal grey. A whitish eye-ring was present, more prominent than it appears in the illustration. The whole effect of the head was very like male Spectacled Warbler. The grey of the crown continued onto the mantle where it gradually became just slightly browner on the lower fringe, but still was distinctly greyer than the male Whitethroats present. The primaries and greater coverts were darkish, with rather dull pale warm sandy brown narrow edges, nothing like a bright or as rufous as the Whitethroats present. The tertials, which I was looking at closely to eliminate Spectacled warbler were very unusual. They were dark blackish brown with rather crisp pale edges, varying between sandy to almost white at the tips, nothing like Spectacled Warbler, or for that matter Whitethroat. They most closely resembled a cleaner centred version of Subalpine Warbler. The alula also stood out quite strongly against the rest of the wing. The feathers were blackish with crisp narrow whitish edges, most prominent on the outer webs. The tail appeared similar to Whitethroat. The back and rump were masked by the tertials most of the time and I cannot say conclusively what colour they were. Its not that I did not see them, the just did not stand out. I regretted drawing the bird with its wings dropped slightly since I had to make a guess at the colour of the rump!
Underparts: The throat was contrastingly pale while the upper breast had a quite strong vinous wash, slightly more intense and “plummy” than the male Whitethroats. The flanks also had a pinky wash but the lower belly was white, not contrasting with the under tail coverts, unlike the local birds. In some lights there was a visible contrast between the off white throat centres and the pure white sides, reminiscent of sub-moustacials of a female Subalpine Warbler.
Soft parts: Bill Darkish with flesh base and legs horn, indistinguishable from Whitethroat. The eye was dark brown and there was definitely no coloured skin around the eye.
Call: Only call given was a scolding “charrr” just like the other Whitethroats.
I was vaguely aware of the existence of Eastern races of Whitethroat, notably S.c.icterops since a few years ago news broke of a singing male Spectacled Warbler at Aberdaron. On closer scrutiny that bird turned out to be a probable Eastern Whitethroat. I told the few people that I had alerted when I first stumbled into the bird that that was what I thought it was, and went home. To my shame I do not own the Shirihai Sylvia book, but reference to Svensson, Williamson and the handbook suggested nothing out of keeping with an icterops Whitethroat.
I have no idea how separable the race is in the field, however I felt that the record was sufficiently interesting to wite up. There was a Red-backed Shrike at the same location the day before and South Stack, which hosted a Black Lark a few days later is in view (well it would be if the Great Orme wasn’t in the way!)
