Bird from China (in the gallery): Grey-crowned Warbler or Bianchi's Warbler (1 Viewer)

njlarsen · May 21, 2014

This photo from the gallery is the Opus image for http://www.birdforum.net/opus/Grey-crowned_Warbler. The possibility has been raised that it might instead be Bianchi's Warbler.

To my mind, the split probably happened after the upload of this image, so the original id might not mean that much. I have no experience with either species, nor do I have a field guide showing any of these. Any good answers

halftwo · May 21, 2014

Its location (Beidaihe, China) could be helpful.

njlarsen · May 22, 2014

MacNara · May 22, 2014

Hi Niels:

If you are doing some cleaning on Opus and the Gallery, here's another couple.

In the gallery for Blue Rock Thrush, I'm pretty sure that the photo for April 17 2010 by AJDH is actually Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush (i.e. saxitilis not solitarius). And for April 2 2014 under the name dirdingtrekking, the poster has mistakenly posted a White-fronted Dipper as well as an actual Blue Rock Thrush photo.

I reported the Rufous-tailed a couple of months ago, using the link on the Gallery page, but never got a reply, and nothing happened.

And incidentally, I also never got a reply when I sent a message using 'Contact BF'. I wanted to make a donation at the yearend. In previous years, I could make a donation from Japan using my credit card, but via PayPal without actually having a PayPal account. This year PayPal won't work from here without me opening an account which I don't want to do. So, no donation possible. Sorry.

njlarsen · May 23, 2014

Mac,
this post came about due to another user contacting me. I will see what I can do about your items as well, but my primary work is with the Opus, not the gallery.

Niels

njlarsen · May 24, 2014

MacNara said:
Hi Niels:

If you are doing some cleaning on Opus and the Gallery, here's another couple.

In the gallery for Blue Rock Thrush, I'm pretty sure that the photo for April 17 2010 by AJDH is actually Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush (i.e. saxitilis not solitarius). And for April 2 2014 under the name dirdingtrekking, the poster has mistakenly posted a White-fronted Dipper as well as an actual Blue Rock Thrush photo.

I reported the Rufous-tailed a couple of months ago, using the link on the Gallery page, but never got a reply, and nothing happened.

And incidentally, I also never got a reply when I sent a message using 'Contact BF'. I wanted to make a donation at the yearend. In previous years, I could make a donation from Japan using my credit card, but via PayPal without actually having a PayPal account. This year PayPal won't work from here without me opening an account which I don't want to do. So, no donation possible. Sorry.

Fixed.

Niels

MacNara · May 24, 2014

Hi Neils, apologies if it was the wrong place. When you use Opus, you are invited to look at photos in the Gallery, and when you (Neils) want a photo for the Opus, you ask people to post them to the Gallery, so I thought they were the same thing from a BF point of view.

I use the Gallery sometimes (usually via Opus) because the Opus as such only seems to have space for one or two photos, and in birds with a lot of variety, features not all visible from the same angle, several sub-species, sexual dimorphism, or distinctive juveniles, the Gallery sometimes has shots. For example, the Opus mentions that there are five ssp and has photos of an adult male and a juvenile of what in Asia would be called pandoo ssp, but Opus doesn't specify the ssp, and to get photos of our phillippensis ssp (which has a red underbody) I have to go to the Gallery. (Interestingly, Svennson et al, Birds of Europe doesn't mention any ssp for this bird at all, not even what the ssp in Europe is.)

It's not an important matter in any sense (there must be quite a lot of mis-identified photos in the Gallery), but since I spotted it, I thought I'd let you know, and the mail link with the Gallery didn't produce any response. That's all. Thanks for replying.

njlarsen · May 24, 2014

Mac,
your way of using Opus to approach the gallery is exactly the same I personally use, so well done.

My answer about only being involved with Opus these days was too short, I want to apologize for that. I should have said that a couple of years ago I got increased responsibilities at my work, so I am only able to put in very little work at BF; I have therefore chosen to concentrate what I do into Opus.

Anyone able to comment on my original request?

Niels

delia todd · May 24, 2014

I use the Gallery sometimes (usually via Opus) because the Opus as such only seems to have space for one or two photos, and in birds with a lot of variety, features not all visible from the same angle, several sub-species, sexual dimorphism, or distinctive juveniles, the Gallery sometimes has shots. For example, the Opus mentions that there are five ssp and has photos of an adult male and a juvenile of what in Asia would be called pandoo ssp, but Opus doesn't specify the ssp, and to get photos of our phillippensis ssp (which has a red underbody) I have to go to the Gallery. (Interestingly, Svennson et al, Birds of Europe doesn't mention any ssp for this bird at all, not even what the ssp in Europe is.)

Finding subspecies in the Gallery, rather relies on having a good knowledge of the species and, sometimes. a good geographical knowledge too. If the photographer has stated the subspecies we try to include that in the article, along with (hopefully) pictures of birds in flight, male, female, stages of maturity, colour morphs and some special behaviour that has been captured.

It is a bit easier to add several pictures if there is a lot of text in the article, however, there is a 'gallery' option, whereby several pictures can be placed alongside each other... see Bonaparte's Gull for an example of this feature.

So, please, please, let us know if you've taken, or come across a picture, that could usefully be placed on the relevant article (or better still learn how to upload such a picture yourself

). Either PM an Opus Editor (their name shows in green), a Moderator, or post in the Opus Discussion area with a link to the image.

We're always looking for people to help with the editing - it's not difficult... honest!

Anyone have any input about the ID of this warbler?

MacNara · May 24, 2014

Thank you Delia. My comment wasn't a complaint in any way. I use and enjoy Bird Forum every day, and I don't think you can do everything, or do everything perfectly. I get more out of Bird Forum than I put in, although I do answer when I think I can.

MacNara · May 24, 2014

PS: Because I get a lot out of it, I have made a donation for a few years. But when I tried to make a donation this year (from Japan, where I live), Paypal wouldn't take a simple credit card payment, but insisted I open an account. I simply don't need this, and try to keep accounts to a minimum. Similarly, I have a UK Debit card, but the address is in Japan, so it wouldn't accept this either. You might do better to have a direct credit card payment system to yourself.

Paypal is owned by e-Bay who have just given over 200 million customers' information to hackers.

njlarsen · May 27, 2014

Still no China experts around?

Niels

MacNara · May 28, 2014

Niels, apologies for derailing your thread (above).

Your problem sounds like a case for Rockfowl (Mark Andrews), but this is exactly the season when he is probably out in the field in China (birds on the move, and still not the blistering heat of summer), and may not be looking here. If you don't get a reply, then perhaps you could PM him, or post it when he is likely to be back (in a month or two).

McMadd · May 28, 2014

MacNara said:
Niels, apologies for derailing your thread (above).

Your problem sounds like a case for Rockfowl (Mark Andrews), but this is exactly the season when he is probably out in the field in China (birds on the move, and still not the blistering heat of summer), and may not be looking here. If you don't get a reply, then perhaps you could PM him, or post it when he is likely to be back (in a month or two).

As Mark (Rockfowl) took the pic, I'm sure he'll have summat to say about the bird ;0)

MacNara · May 28, 2014

McMadd said:
As Mark (Rockfowl) took the pic, I'm sure he'll have summat to say about the bird ;0)

Oops! I'm sure he will.

But if he identified it, I think you'd have to be pretty confident to challenge it.

But when he has another look, I think that if he decides his original identification was inaccurate, he will be the first (er, second) to say so. And if not, I expect he will defend it.

rockfowl · May 28, 2014

Ooops!!

I was indeed in China, so didn't see this. It is actually I believe, a Bianchi's, not a Grey-crowned based on call and the not so obvious wingbar. Probably flagged up as its on the IBC as such, no idea why this one was uploaded wrongly labelled, I possibly uploaded a few at the same time and this one sneaked through.
There are certainly better images of these tricky Seicercus warblers out there, need Mr Eaton et.al to upload some from the breeding grounds.
Attached, a very similar looking Grey-crowned from Laoting, Hebei, China, also a scarce but regular overshoot.

njlarsen · May 28, 2014

Thanks Mark.
I have the idea that the split of these warblers was not accepted in 2008 when this image was uploaded. I have now made some corrections and uploaded the new image to Opus.

Niels

McMadd · May 28, 2014

rockfowl said:
Ooops!!

I was indeed in China, so didn't see this. It is actually I believe, a Bianchi's, not a Grey-crowned based on call and the not so obvious wingbar. Probably flagged up as its on the IBC as such, no idea why this one was uploaded wrongly labelled, I possibly uploaded a few at the same time and this one sneaked through.
There are certainly better images of these tricky Seicercus warblers out there, need Mr Eaton et.al to upload some from the breeding grounds.
Attached, a very similar looking Grey-crowned from Laoting, Hebei, China, also a scarce but regular overshoot.

You costing me a tick there ya booger? This was the one on Lighthouse Point in '08 right?

McM

rockfowl · May 28, 2014

McMadd said:
You costing me a tick there ya booger? This was the one on Lighthouse Point in '08 right?

McM

Nope, neither taken on Lighthouse

Bird from China (in the gallery): Grey-crowned Warbler or Bianchi's Warbler (1 Viewer)

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