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Small yellow bird, Abu Dhabi (1 Viewer)

lazza

Well-known member
I’m afraid that I don’t have any photos, but hope someone might be able to point me in the right direction!

I’m in Abu Dhabi right now, and this morning I had a short walk around my hotel’s garden. Aside from the ubiquitous bulbuls, doves and mynah, there was a small yellow bird in one tree. I couldn’t get a really good look, but even on the basic observations I made, I can find nothing remotely like it in the avibase list for AD or UAE. It was a small (maybe nearly as Small as a goldcrest) sized bird, moving quickly through foliage (feeding?). It had a predominantly yellow breast but with a great-tit like dark “bib” and was darker above (again, quite great-tit like) although the overall shape was much slimmer. Most intriguingly, it had a rather long, thin, curved bill somewhat like a sunbird. Of the birds I’ve seen before, it rather put me in mind of a Bananaquit (although I know that’s impossible, but that was the general impression the bird gave). Any thoughts?
 
No doubt that's what it was. The "bib" would denote an eclipse male, probably.

Those on the Iranian side of the Gulf have a moult strategy whereby they begin to lose their breeding plumage as soon as the pair begin brooding the eggs, and if that is also the case for UAE birds, it would fit the plumage of an eclipse male. Most other populations moult after the breeding season ends.
MJB
 
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