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Warblers Öland, Sweden, middle May 2019 (1 Viewer)

Aladdin

Well-known member
Thailand
Dear members and bird watchers

Warblers can make me crazy and I spotted several in Sweden, the ciffchaff is pretty easy if you see the leg. Only warbler in Sweden with black legs, at least this is what I have learned

Öland Sweden in the middle of May

Picture #1 - Cant really see the legs, but I have identified this as a Willow Warbler even though it looks like a chiffchaff with the black streak through the eye.
But I look at the eye ring, more yellowish when I have compared pic between the birds. Also more yellow gape, or there is something yellow between the bill and the eye´. Should I stay with Willow Warbler for this one?

Picture #2 – Due to the bright colour I have identified this to be a Wood Warbler. Should I stay with this identity?

Picture #3 – A very dull bird, but looks to a Willow Warbler with some problem with the plumage, look at eye rings, not a full ring. Moulting in to breeding plummage?

Picture #4 and #5 – The same bird. A Chiffchaff? Very dark leg, but not totally black. But less yellowish than the Willow Warbler and thus I have identified it as a Chiffchaff. Correct?

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin
 

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Image 2. is a Wood Warbler, and the rest look like Willow Warblers apart from the last bird which is either Willow or Chiff Chaff.

Cheers
 
Image 2. is a Wood Warbler, and the rest look like Willow Warblers apart from the last bird which is either Willow or Chiff Chaff.

Cheers

Thank you very much!!

If you don´t mind, do you have an idea why the willow pic #3 have the dull plumage comparing to willow pic #1 and broken eye ring?

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin
 
Thank you very much!!

If you don´t mind, do you have an idea why the willow pic #3 have the dull plumage comparing to willow pic #1 and broken eye ring?

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin

Willow Warbler and Chiff Chaff overlap cosmetically however their respective wings are different...with CC having shorter wings, ie the exposed primaries being c1/2 the length of the overlying (3) tertials, with WW the primaries should equal the length of the overlying tertials.

Cheers
 
In Sweden there is a north/south split with ssp acredula more prevalent in the north. This ssp is much duller, greyer in appearance than trochilus. There may be some overlap where you where or where you took these pics.
 
Thank you very much Fat Paul Scholes

As I thought, but I identified the bird with the dark legs. If you have time and have short description, what you mean by emargination on p6?

Thank you again and happy birding
Aladdin

No problem Aladdin,

Some of the primaries (longest flight feathers) of many birds have ‘indentations’ on the inside edge (notches - only really visible in the hand) or on the outside edge (emarginations). In good photos you can sometimes see these emarginations, and in some very similar species these are really useful ID features.

One way in which chiffchaff and willow warbler differ is that the chiffchaff has one more emargination. Willow warblers have them on the primaries numbered 3, 4 and 5, with chiffchaff having the additional one on primary number 6 (p6).

In passerines, the primaries are numbered from 1 to 10, starting at the outermost feather. However, most of the time you can’t see the outermost primary as it is very short. So, when counting the primaries we start with p2.

There’s a nice illustration here: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/northantsbirds.com/2012/09/01/phylloscopy/amp/
 
I’ve added a red arrow pointing at the emargination on p6 on your pic
 

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Willow Warbler and Chiff Chaff overlap cosmetically however their respective wings are different...with CC having shorter wings, ie the exposed primaries being c1/2 the length of the overlying (3) tertials, with WW the primaries should equal the length of the overlying tertials.

Cheers

Thank you very much!

I will compare a few birds to see if I can train to see the difference in this way as you are mostly seen the wings.

The black leg ID is good, but most of the time it is very hard to see the colours of the legs.

Thank you again

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin
 
In Sweden there is a north/south split with ssp acredula more prevalent in the north. This ssp is much duller, greyer in appearance than trochilus. There may be some overlap where you where or where you took these pics.

Hello BobbitWorms45

Thank you, this was interesting. Öland is actually a world famous island. In the Baltic sea and there is a lot of birds stopping there on their way to breeding in the very north of Europe

I was lucky to see a Bluethroat that only nest in the very north stopping on Öland coming from Africa.

Thank you again

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin
 
No problem Aladdin,

Some of the primaries (longest flight feathers) of many birds have ‘indentations’ on the inside edge (notches - only really visible in the hand) or on the outside edge (emarginations). In good photos you can sometimes see these emarginations, and in some very similar species these are really useful ID features.

One way in which chiffchaff and willow warbler differ is that the chiffchaff has one more emargination. Willow warblers have them on the primaries numbered 3, 4 and 5, with chiffchaff having the additional one on primary number 6 (p6).

In passerines, the primaries are numbered from 1 to 10, starting at the outermost feather. However, most of the time you can’t see the outermost primary as it is very short. So, when counting the primaries we start with p2.

There’s a nice illustration here: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/northantsbirds.com/2012/09/01/phylloscopy/amp/

Thank you very much!!

Great web page and I have added it to my favourites and next time I will use it trying to see the difference.

I study your post looking at the pictures, and I can see the difference. But to do this in the field? I will practice with pictures, but they are not so easy to get on pictures, moving about all the time.

Thank you again

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin
 
I’ve added a red arrow pointing at the emargination on p6 on your pic

Cheers Mark

Visited you web page and you are taking great pictures. I also took the opportunity to down load the Audacity manual for birders, THANKS!

I have started to record birds as well and and this manual will come in handy as I use Audacity

Thanks
Aladdin
 
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