Willow Warblers? Iran, Tehran, Sep. 2023 (1 Viewer)

[Pedrambirder]

Hi all,
There are some shots of Warblers feeding on a tree for about two hours, they seem to be Willow, but I'm not sure if all of them are the same.

 

[Butty]

Pretty exuberant supercilium for willow warbler...

 

[Pedrambirder]

Pretty exuberant supercilium for willow warbler...

Thank you.

 

[maplekong]

Pretty exuberant supercilium for willow warbler...

Hi Butty, we don't have as much knowledge as you, and I do think that Pedrambirder seems to know what is going on (I don't) but I think it may be more helpful especially for inexperienced people if you could say what you think it may be, then give a couple of reasons why, instead of confusing us and perhaps discouraging some people a little. I hope I don't offend you because I don't know exactly how you meant the message (it can sound very different with different meanings in real life but becomes ambiguous online)

 

[Butty]

if you could say what you think it may be, then give a couple of reasons

Dunno. Except that it/they do(es)n't look like willow warbler(s) for the reason stated. Maybe that's clearer.

 

[maplekong]

Dunno. Except that it/they do(es)n't look like willow warblers for the reason stated. Maybe that's clearer.

If you don't know then we're all doomed Maybe Alexander or someone else will know,

 

[Joe H]

Nice pictures! I claim no expertise but in attempt to nominate some likely suspects I compared the leg colors and the superciliums; it appears to me there are possibly three species present:

Distinct supercilium with dark legs: 220832, 220801

Faint supercilium with dark legs: 220437, 220407

Faint supercilium with light legs: 220526

Below are some pictures from my Princeton Birds of the Middle East. I’ve just included the most likely suspects but I’m not quite ready to start affixing species guesses to photo numbers, but hopefully this will be a useful first step.

 

[THE_FERN]

Nice pictures! I claim no expertise but in attempt to nominate some likely suspects I compared the leg colors and the superciliums; it appears to me there are possibly three species present:

Distinct supercilium with dark legs: 220832, 220801

Faint supercilium with dark legs: 220437, 220407

Faint supercilium with light legs: 220526

Below are some pictures from my Princeton Birds of the Middle East. I’ve just included the most likely suspects but I’m not quite ready to start affixing species guesses to photo numbers, but hopefully this will be a useful first step.

If these are really the options then they're willow warblers.

I took a quick look before and wasn't sure. They looked "slightly strange" for willow warblers---which I attribute to the very pronounced dark eyestripe.

 

[kuzeycem]

Not seeing anything against Willow here

 

[KenM]

Here’s a Willow Warbler I shot in a central London park a few days ago.

Cheers

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello,

thanks for your kind words Maple, but there are surely more experienced members here, and I have never been in the Middle East before.
Yes some look good for Willow warblers for me too (easy =surely biased by the other comments. thanks!)

But two of them look some kind of strange. Yes, i am biased towards WW too and can't find hard features against this ID. But I usually hesitate to comment then without experience from the region.

It's 437, it's not just the faint supercilium, surely blown out by harsh light? And within variation for WW, but it's the appearant solid olive breast band, not yellowish and streaky? Don't know and after a second, surely more biased look it seems ok for a Willow Warbler.

And 712:weird compact square impression and more for a WW.

Yes, as said I don't say that they aren't WW for me too. But I hope it's clear now, why I hesitate to comment here. And learn from all comments.