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Photohunt in South East Kazakhstan (1 Viewer)

Askar Isabekov

Well-known member
Salam aleikum. This is some results of my todays photo hunting in Alma Ata (South East Kazakhstan, Tien Shan Mountains). Small Sylvidae bird is Acrocephalus or Phylloscopus representative. And raptor is Accipiter. Last looks like badius (short fingers and stripless tail) but may be nisus.

You considiration?
 

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Askar Isabekov said:
Salam aleikum. This is some results of my todays photo hunting in Alma Ata (South East Kazakhstan, Tien Shan Mountains). Small Sylvidae bird is Acrocephalus or Phylloscopus representative. And raptor is Accipiter. Last looks like badius (short fingers and stripless tail) but may be nisus.

You considiration?

Quick thoughts after viewing pictures is that left hand bird is a hippolais due to head profile and beak dimensions - ?
 
Same here, but after that one is invited to crack one's head to distinguish in between eleiaca and rama.
Supposedly Olivacious warbler just does nt reach the Tian Shian. The photo does nt show us too many.
 

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Agreed its a Hippo. It ought to be rama on location - but it really does remind me more of pallida! Not sure we can do much without a series of photographs. I'm out of my depth on the Accipiter.
 
For the sparrowhawk: A Shikra needs grey cheeks and a gullar stripe. It has still white and rusty near the cheeks and I cant see the gullar stripe
 
Perhaps an additional point to the points given already-- but I may be wrong here : I thought the breast pattern of shikra is finer, slightly more densely striped than sparrowhawk? (Which would also additionally point to sparrowhawk for this bird)
Or is that wrong?
 
Some more photos of Hippolais. Unfortunatelly so bad quality.
 

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The warbler dosen't look like the pallida we get in the garden evry year. Looks bigger,heavier billed and browner or is that due to some optical illusion?...

Not touching the Accipiter...

Cheers!

Dimitris
 
Jane Turner said:
Agreed its a Hippo. It ought to be rama on location - but it really does remind me more of pallida! Not sure we can do much without a series of photographs. I'm out of my depth on the Accipiter.

I have tried to string Olivaceous from big-billed rama in the Chinese part of the Tien Shan in Xinjiang Provinvce(NW China), and agree that rama is the most likely.
 
Agree with Sparrowhawk, but the warbler is a problem. Could be Sykes, but could be an acro! Tip to lower mandible varies from appearing pale to smudged darker, and i can't really see any other disyinctive features. Plain tertials would rule out Paddyfield (which are not all rufous and distinctive with big supercilliums), leaving Blyth's Reed as the likely candidate. Which is what i think it is. Wouldn't put any money on it though....
 
The bill tip-to the base of the bill measures in this bird a bit less than the length of the bill base to the nape.

In a short billed acro like Marsh this length is about equal and not less. In Blyth's Reed it should at least be equal since this species almost always has a more heavy bill than Marsh.

The shape of the head is not sloping in this bird as it is in most Acro, giving even more a snouty impression. Not always, but we have more than one photo here which shows only this 'peaky' headshape which is common to Booted,
The body is not lengthy either and the headpattern is very good for Booted.
Which I think it is.

Here the measurements for some species
The number is for the bill in mm : tip to skull.
Blyths Reed: 17.2-18
Marsh : 14.7-17.1
Padyfield : 14.8-15.2
Booted : 13.9-14.1
Sykes : 13.9-14.1
Eastern Olivacious: 18.0-19.0
 
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I would also favour Blyth's. One little jizz point that might favour this is that the tail is cocked in some pics. A bit of the 'banana' shape that Blyth's is prone to? Also the tail is slightly fanned, especially in second pic, which Blyth's is also prone to. This concave shape and cocking and fanning of tail would be unlike other Acros and Hippos that might be in consideration. In addition, Hippos would have a more square-ended tail.
 
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The first is caligata, the second is rama. The tail is not too square cut.
 

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Here is my adum pic.Head pattern seems to quite similar.But what about the bil size?
 

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I ve been running through all the Booted warblers in the net I could find.
Many of them show a roundish head shape and have this 'friendly' phyloscopus like expression,combined with a smallish bill. And contrast in their tertials and secondaries. I ll regard these as 'typical' Booted.
I found some birds, not always real Booted warblers, being so called (even a female Common Whitethroat), but others really where, and, in which they look like Acro's.

Now, this is what I ll do:Since I am not in this forum to plead for my own eminency, but for the true identity of any bird as a subject of our studies, I ll refrain from this Hippolais drama and plead uncertain (it is not typical Booted)
 
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