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2017 Western Palearctic Big Year (4 Viewers)

flownek said:
I knew this is going to be interesting. BH Penduline Tit is of course a serious blocker:eek!:
It seems there was a record from the eastern bank of Ural River a few days ago, so just outside WP. Bad luck, at least from the perspective of a WP lister...
Click to expand...

Doesn't the attached show breeding along the WP border?

All the best

Paul
 

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Yes it does, but it also states that data is very thin and much more research in the Caspian region is needed. However in the comments section on Facebook a few more pictures of likely BHPTs are linked from the Ural region, so I'm pretty sure that it's not really an addition to the WP list, but that authorities for such lists didn't have the intel that such a huge group of people who follow the adventures of the Big Year guys can cumulate.
 
Maffong said:
Yes it does, but it also states that data is very thin and much more research in the Caspian region is needed. However in the comments section on Facebook a few more pictures of likely BHPTs are linked from the Ural region, so I'm pretty sure that it's not really an addition to the WP list, but that authorities for such lists didn't have the intel that such a huge group of people who follow the adventures of the Big Year guys can cumulate.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Not on my radar at all but dug BWP off the shelf. Vol VII page 395 says - 'At mouth of Urals river, macronyx hybridises with caspius (of pendulinus group), resulting in variable population sometimes named bostanjogli Sarudny, 1913'.

All the best
 
Black-headed Penduline Tit in WP

With a bit of digging I found several references to occurrence in the WP. Vagrancy has been reported from Russia and it is considered to occur and sometimes hybridize in the Ural delta (R. m. macronyx). Support for occurence in southeasternmost Azerbaijan seems poor and range maps mostly show it quite far away from the border to Iran where R. m. neglectus occurs.

For further references see:
HBW Alive (Members only)
Penduline tits in Eurasia: distribution, identification and systematics

So definitely not a first for the Western Palearctic, but in my opinion still maybe the best find of their Big Year so far!
 
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With only Black Lark and Demoiselle Crane left for Kazakhstan we can already start to figure out what awaits them in Russia and Svalbard.
They'll probably bird around Yekaterinburg first, then go to the central Urals and finally to the polar Ural if they can afford it.
Birding in Ural mountains

Targets in Russia would be
Western Capercaillie
Rock Ptarmigan
Willow Ptarmigan
(Demoiselle Crane)
Eurasian Dotterel
Pin-tailed Snipe
Great Snipe
Gyrfalcon
Oriental Turtle Dove
Oriental Cuckoo
Grey-headed Chickadee
Azure Tit
(Black Lark)
Yellow-browed Warbler
Arctic Warbler
Greenish Warbler
Booted Warbler
Common Grasshopper Warbler
River Warbler
Lanceolated Warbler
White's Thrush
Thrush Nightingale
Siberian Rubythroat
Red-flanked Bluetail
Black-throated Accentor
Olive-backed Pipit
Long-tailed Rosefinch
Two-barred Crossbill
Little Bunting
Rustic Bunting
Yellow-breasted Bunting (still around???)
Pallas's Reed Bunting
Lapland Longspur
Snow Bunting

They should also get White-backed Woodpecker that aren't from a reintroduction program. It would also be awesome if they could try and find a Siberian Accentor inside its range (eventhough they've already got it)

And for Svalbard
Steller's Eider
King Eider
Rock Ptarmigan
Red Phalarope
Ivory Gull
Sabine's Gull
Arctic Tern
Long-tailed Jaeger
Little Auk
Thick-billed Murre
Atlantic Puffin
Snow Bunting

While skimming through trip reports from Svalbard I was very surprised to find that Pectoral Sandpiper might breed there!
I was as surprised to find out that species such as Yellow-billed Loon, Snowy Owl, Gyrfalcon and Lapland Longspur also aren't recorded during the tours on Svalbard. Don't they breed?
 
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R. m. ssaposhnikowi is currently included in Black-headed Penduline Tit under IOC which they are following. So currently they can count it and it belongs on a WP list under IOC taxonomy. Whether its species status (and that of Black-headed Penduline Tit as a whole) will be maintained in the near future is therefor more of a concern for taxonomists than for listers. Nevertheless would it be great if they could refind those birds (or somebody else, seems like Kazakhstan is swarming with WestPal birders this year) and get better pictures and maybe also find birds without white to the throat.
 
Hmm, have a random idea to go to Kazakhstan next spring and look for rarities at the WP border. Surely if the Long-tailed Shrike is only known from the city centre park, there is a lot of potential to find things, and the place is totally under-birded. And I speak Russian and can stand car breaking down 3 times in a row.
 
Brian J Small said:
This article suggests a white throat indicates an 'intermediate head pattern' - ssaposhnikowi (easier said when drunk) - which Vaurie treats as a 'hybrid swarm'.

This pic from their facebook shows a white throat - https://scontent.flhr3-1.fna.fbcdn....=987e7f47a3a8e22506f2e872e7e80c79&oe=59A35B66

B
Click to expand...

This recent picture from Vincent Legrand supports the theory that the birds in the Ural delta are really ssaposhnikowi
https://www.facebook.com/539740812732756/photos/a.544940552212782.1073741830.539740812732756/1659737214066438/?type=3&theater
 
Maffong said:
R. m. ssaposhnikowi is currently included in Black-headed Penduline Tit under IOC which they are following. So currently they can count it and it belongs on a WP list under IOC taxonomy. Whether its species status (and that of Black-headed Penduline Tit as a whole) will be maintained in the near future is therefor more of a concern for taxonomists than for listers. Nevertheless would it be great if they could refind those birds (or somebody else, seems like Kazakhstan is swarming with WestPal birders this year) and get better pictures and maybe also find birds without white to the throat.
Click to expand...

Range of ssaposhnikowi all wrong though surely by IOC taxonomy?

Cheers, Graeme Joynt
 
Maffong said:
And for Svalbard
Steller's Eider
King Eider
Rock Ptarmigan
Red Phalarope
Ivory Gull
Arctic Tern
Long-tailed Jaeger
Little Auk
Thick-billed Murre
Atlantic Puffin
Snow Bunting
Click to expand...

Maffong

I had Sabine's Gull as a realistic target as well but I may be wrong in that regard?

All the best
 
Paul Chapman said:
Maffong

I had Sabine's Gull as a realistic target as well but I may be wrong in that regard?

All the best
Click to expand...

No, of course Sabine's Gull is possible in Svalbard. There was an error in my list which I thought I had amended prior to posting here, but apparently I amended after writing...

Concerning ssaposhnikowii both IOC and HBW Alive put that into SE Kazakhstan. Ssp macronyx should be expected in SW Kazakhstan according to both.
HBW Alive currently recognizes it as ssp of R. macronyx but states:
Race ssaposhnikowi believed probably to have originated as hybrid between nominate race of present species and race jaxarticus of R. pendulinus, although neither parent found within current range of ssaposhnikowi; this race is very variable, some being dark-hooded like nominate, others having chestnut crown and nape like R. pendulinus caspius, and some are intermediate; consequently, perhaps best not recognized
Click to expand...

Ssp neglectus also shows a white throat in this picture but not here
On a sidenote this bird reminds me very much of R. m. nigricans which is believed to be possibly extinct, but this might be due to lighting and is in completely the wrong region
 
Black-headed Penduline Tit

It may have been mentioned above, but my understanding is that recent DNA work (ref?) has indicated that whilst White-crowned and Chinese Penduline Tit should be regarded as species, Black-headed is best subsumed within the Western bird. I think all the talk above of hybrid swarms supports this.

So whilst it is currently recognised by IOC, I suspect this won't last.

cheers, alan
 
Where's the evidence of hybridisation though? Because it seems to be that this complex needs some more studying before conclusions are prematurely taken.
Can you provide the name of that study please, Lewis? I'd like to take a look at it.
 

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