Eastern type Chiffchaff (1 Viewer)

[Geoff WORCS]

Not my bird but seen in the Zagreb area in Croatia on 20/02/2023. My first thought was tristis but I can see hardly any green colouration. With a white supercillium, white throat and overall grey brown colouration it seems closer to sidianus or lorenzii?
Any thoughts much appreciated.

 

[FaroeRagnar]

It seems browner than the usual pallid tristis, but the subspecies itself has some individual variation, often thought to be geographic in nature, with more western population being closer to northern subspecies in phenotype, which could indicate that it is an western tristis or a sub-tristis type, as the bird seems to have the greenish sheen on outer fans on the primaries, and therefore points towards tristis-type instead of mountain chiffchaff

 

[Brian J Small]

My notes on observations of MC suggest that the head pattern is subtly different to CC. The supercilium is broader (notably in front of the eye), often meeting narrowly above the bill; also, typically it is paler in front of the eye, bcoming slight buffer posteriorly.

On your images the super is narrow and evenly white. Judging the subtlety of colour hues from your photos is hindered by their overall yellow cast. I have tried to filter it out on the attached.

Brian

 

[KenM]

My notes on observations of MC suggest that the head pattern is subtly different to CC. The supercilium is broader (notably in front of the eye), often meeting narrowly above the bill; also, typically it is paler in front of the eye, bcoming slight buffer posteriorly.

On your images the super is narrow and evenly white. Judging the subtlety of colour hues from your photos is hindered by their overall yellow cast. I have tried to filter it out on the attached.

Brian

Perhaps a bit like this…