Poss Sib Chiff @Whitburn 22/10/09 (1 Viewer)

Ade George

Well-known member

• Oct 24, 2009

• #1

I caught these two Chiffs and they certainly have an eastern look to them but wouldnt mind peoples opinions on whether they could be tristis or fulvescens race.

Note: the camera flash makes the bird look slightly darker than in natural light but without the flash the picture give a more cold look to the bird

 

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H

HH75

Well-known member

• Oct 25, 2009

• #2

Hi Ade,
For a start, which pics refer to which birds? The second image, in particular, does seem to have appeal for tristis, with its rusty-toned ear coverts and brown upperparts with an apparent lack of green. However, according to a paper by van den Berg in a recent Dutch Birding, variation within tristis trapped on migration in eastern Kazakhstan is greater than commonly believed, with some birds resembling these paler Chiffchaffs that were formerly classed as pro-tristis, and calls and song are of paramount importance in the confident identification. That said, the bird in pic 2 surely isn't an abietinus on plumage tones alone.
Regards,
Harry

 

J

James Lidster

Well-known member

• Oct 25, 2009

• #3

Agree with Harrys comments, and would recommend anyone interested in tristis (or birding generally) to see Arnouds article in Dutch Birding
Cheers
James

 

JANJ

Well-known member

• Oct 25, 2009

• #4

And that would be Dutch Birding vol. 31 (2009) no 2

JanJ

 

eagle33

Craig Shaw

• Oct 25, 2009

• #5

cant remember where i heard this but i thought Sib chiffchaff had all black feet, Yellow feet suggest Abientus. Always an intresting subject these birds.

 

Ade George

Well-known member

• Oct 25, 2009

• #6

Cheers for the comments. The first three photos are bird 1 and the last two are of bird 2. I will try and track down the paper in question, is it on the net anywhere?

 

gandytron

Well-known member

• Oct 27, 2009

• #7

Hi Ade,

I had brief views of a bird at Muckleburgh Hill, Norfolk on 26th Oct that looked very similar to the bird in shots 1-3, so would be interested to hear what conclusions you come to.

Thanks and best wishes

Dave

 

Ilya Maclean

charlatan

• Oct 28, 2009

• #8

Hi Ade (and Harry)

The chiffchaff situation is even more complex than is often suggested. There's a good overview article here (I don't know how it compares to the Dutch Birding article):

http://www.btinternet.com/~deanar/tristis/tristis.htm

I recall a talk given by Greg Conway recently, who's doing a PhD on over-wintering chiffchaffs in the UK. He suggested occasional individuals have little or no yellow or olive and in this respect match tristis, but also lack the distinctive grey-brown or drab-brown hue to the upperparts of ‘classic’ tristis and have little or no warm buff/rusty buff in the underparts, supercilium and cheeks. If memory serves me correctly (which I'm not sure it does), these were also genetically matched to tristis. Also, a much higher proportion than was expected were actually tristis as opposed to abietinus.

In short, bird 2 looks good for tristis, but the others may also be (but as Harry says, best clinched on call).

 

Last edited: Oct 28, 2009

J

James Lidster

Well-known member

• Oct 30, 2009

• #9

The Dutch Birding article is quite different from the views of Alan Dean.
Cheers
James