nickderry
C'est pas ma faute, je suis anglais.
Whilst looking for non-existant Penduline Tits near to Besançon I came across this pale looking Chiffchaff giving plenty of "pee" and "see-oo" calls. I know for certain that it's never going to be accepted as a tristis (not sure if it even is one). I was just hoping that somebody could enlighten me further on its possible origins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIIU-dqkEe8 is a link to a video where you can at least hear the bird calling.
And as I'm a sketcher not a photographer - here are my sketches (would have been better to have a decent camera for this bird).
The bird was noticeably paler and more olive than a collybita (not a good tristis feature anyway - looked quite green in the sunlight) with a stronger supercilium (couldn't see for certain if there was any yellow in it - didn't seem to be), the bill was all dark, the cheeks had a faint buff wash to them and the throat was bright and whitish. The belly was clean whitish with a nice clear buff patch on the sides of the breast, the flanks were buffy yellow, contrasting nicely with the clean white undertail coverts. The wings showed quite strong dark centres to the tertials and a pale secondary panel (not sure if any of that is relevant but hey!) I'm thinking somewhere in the range of abietinus, but would just like to hear other people's views.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIIU-dqkEe8 is a link to a video where you can at least hear the bird calling.
And as I'm a sketcher not a photographer - here are my sketches (would have been better to have a decent camera for this bird).
The bird was noticeably paler and more olive than a collybita (not a good tristis feature anyway - looked quite green in the sunlight) with a stronger supercilium (couldn't see for certain if there was any yellow in it - didn't seem to be), the bill was all dark, the cheeks had a faint buff wash to them and the throat was bright and whitish. The belly was clean whitish with a nice clear buff patch on the sides of the breast, the flanks were buffy yellow, contrasting nicely with the clean white undertail coverts. The wings showed quite strong dark centres to the tertials and a pale secondary panel (not sure if any of that is relevant but hey!) I'm thinking somewhere in the range of abietinus, but would just like to hear other people's views.