Musciapa Flycatcher, Lake Kerkini- Greece- 22.09.2022 (1 Viewer)

[Dimitris]

Hello again,

Since people from the Swift thread wanted to dig their teeth into something else here you go.

This bird immediately struck me as being very pale and warm toned in the field. It has very limited streaking on the breast, flanks and warm toned above. It also appears to be short winged. Unfortunately I do not have images of the full wing. Before anyone shoots me I was aware of the split, but I never bothered reading the papers until after I saw this bird. I was not expecting to find a potential Balearic.

However, it does have an extensive warm wash to the flanks which is atypical of Balearic, the crown also does not appear to have enough white to give it a 'frosted' look.

These are all the images I have,

Cheers,

D.

Link to the paper:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrea-Corso-3/publication/337547494_Identification_of_Mediterranean_Flycatcher/links/5e2708db4585150ee775c1fc/Identification-of-Mediterranean-Flycatcher.pdf

 

[Dimitris]

Seems that the forum ate one image.

Edit: I have emailed the authors of the paper. Will post their replies here with their permission.

Edit 2: Added an image of a typical Spotted from the same morning and close to this bird- its the bird sitting in the fig tree

 

[Andy Adcock]

The crown is wrong for Mediterranean, should be some white streaking from what I read recently?.

 

[Dimitris]

The crown is wrong for Mediterranean, should be some white streaking from what I read recently?.

Agreed, but the bird is not a typical Spotted. I am wondering if it is from an eastern population?

 

[Dimitris]

Alrighty,

Michelle has kindly responded to my question. It's an 'eastern' Spotted Flycatcher.

"Your bird is indeed a pale individual with whiteish underparts and reduced breast streaking. As you suggest, the forehead background colour is on the dark side for a balearica, if not too dark. I can’t judge properly wing length, but in more than one picture I can see the second primary P2 and this seems to be pretty long, just a tad shorter than the wing point, so ruling out balearica and tyrrhenica.
My best guess is that this spotted flycatcher comes from the eastern part of the species range, explaining the paler look."

I can put this to rest.

Thanking everyone who had a look.

D.