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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Warbler Eastern Saudi Arabia (3 Viewers)

However Reed and Marsh warblers can be skulking or active, and when active in a feeding mode do flick wag and fan tails possibly for balance but it is behaviour seen often plus they regularly turn up in coastal halophytic vegetation especially if mixed with tamarisk as is the case in the location where AJ photographed this bird. We have ringed three or four Reed this week, I personally rule out this species with complete confidence on shape, size and colour alone even given the bad light in the pictures.
Don't know if this helps any but all adds to the picture.

I agree that we can also rule out both Marsh and Reed Warblers. The colouration of upperparts (they have also distinct edges, and a quite distinct greenish-olive tinge above in Marsh, whereas more warmer, often rufous-tinged above in Reed) and underparts seems to be wrong for both species. That kind of greyish upperparts match best for greyish Hippos.
 
I have been reading all the posts since I put up this bird and I'd like to thank everyone for their time and effort they have put in. It's been very interesting reading the variations and differences of the correspondents replies.

Thank you all.

Adrian
 
however this is nothing as I am constantly being amazed also at just how good some visiting birders are when they report that have been able to separate in the field at a hundred metres in our light certain species down to subspecies level.

I know the feeling! On arriving for a two month stay at Eilat IBRCE, i told Reuven Yosef that one of the things i wanted to do was check out racial variations. He laughed, and said that all western birders came to Israel expecting to be able to put a subspecific name to everything - Lesser Whitethroats, Yellow Wagtails etc, but that his advice was don't bother! And to a certain extent he was right. There are so many birds out there that do not fit into our neat racial catagories, especially with the two examples i mentioned. The more we learn about these species, the more we find we do not know, if that makes sense.

Just as a thought, and probably my last word on the subject as it looks as though we are reaching a point of stalemate, is it possible that Adrian's first impression of Graceful Prinia was partially influenced by the bird swinging its tail around when he first saw it?

Cheers,
Paul.
 
Just as a thought, and probably my last word on the subject as it looks as though we are reaching a point of stalemate, is it possible that Adrian's first impression of Graceful Prinia was partially influenced by the bird swinging its tail around when he first saw it?

Cheers,
Paul.

That's right Paul. All I could see in the bush was the tail movement, so I thought graceful prinia as I'd photographed one in the same bush days earlier. It was only when the bird showed itself a bit more that I realised it was something else.
 
I changed my mind and I'd favor also more EOW, because
* the prim proj (and body shape) are not very longish,
* the bill is almost medium-sized with clearly down curved tip (down curved tip is less prominent and thus bill more straigth in Upcher's),
* the comment about small size favor also more EOW,
* the length of tail is also more medium size than longish.
* the colour of tail should be more darker in the shadow if the bird would be Upcher's
* the pale edges and tips of wing feathers are not so prominent, if we notice that the angle of ligth strengthen the impression of pale areas
* the fact that EOW is most common in this time of year in the area
...
But of course, there are many questions (e.g. tail movements),
in which are rather impossible to get answers
 
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You might like to check out the following page - I have toned down the sun on AJ's pictures and have these images together with shots of both Upchers and Olivaceous for comparison - see what you think
> http://www.hawar-islands.com/blog/id_stub.php

These comparison images shows us clearly at least one difference between EOW and Upchers: distance between tips of the three tertials about equal in EOW, whereas distance between central and inner tertials clearly longer than between central and outer ones in Upchers.

Regarding to this case, we can rule out Booted because this Hippo has rather long primary projection and 7 primary tips visible, which match well to Olivaceous and possibly also Upchers.
 
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