Afghanistan (1 Viewer)

[hamlinjk15u]

I have some photos of birds from one of my deployments in Afghanistan from around 2010. Location of all but the Kingfisher was near Sharana in the Paktika Province. Kingfisher was in Jalalabad in the Nangarhar Province. I just discovered them as I was looking through some old photos and didn't realize I had so many different bird photos. Turns out I caught 10 species, photos in order of list below:

Cinereous Vulture; Black Kite; White-Throated Kingfisher; Crested Lark; Hume's Warbler; Black-Throated Thrush; Isabelline Wheatear; Hume's Wheatear; Eurasian Tree Sparrow; Common Myna (no photos but they were everywhere and the only one I identified while there)

 

[dwatsonbirder]

Nice captures, though the warbler is a Greenish and the Black-throated thrush is Variable wheatear.

 

[hamlinjk15u]

Nice captures, though the warbler is a Greenish and the Black-throated thrush is Variable wheatear.

Would you mind explaining the reasoning behind these differences? Admittedly the photos aren't the best quality, I spent a while trying to figure these out. The Warbler (5th photo) I decided on Hume's mainly because of the visible wing bar, which Greenish don't have. The black throated thrush (6th photo) I decided on because of the mostly brown feathers, white breast, and black throat with yellow bill, while the Variable is black and white, and even the females don't look to have a variation that have a black throat with their brown feathers.

I believe my reasoning is sound. I'd be very interested to hear your reasoning to the contrary. Thank you so much for the discussion!

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

First of all, thanks for posting these photos. I tend to agree with Daniel's identifications. Greenish Warbler has one visible wing bar, like the bird in your photograph. Hume's Warbler should show two wing bars and also white-edged tertials and dark bases to the secondaries.

The other bird looks like a Wheatear and Variable seems a good possibility. I don't see a yellow bill here and brown feathering is potentially a combination of photographic effects (the wing tip catching the light) and feather wear. Note that the tail pattern is wrong for a Black-throated Thrush and right for a wheatear, with black on the tail tip but not extending across the whole underside of the tail as it should do on the thrush.

 

[dwatsonbirder]

Andrew beat me to it, but his reasoning is probably more eloquent than I can muster!

 

[hamlinjk15u]

Thank you all for the assistance! I took a stab at what I could based on what I could see but you guys have the knowledge and experience to point me in the right direction! I appreciate the help!