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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CAU" data-source="post: 1291509" data-attributes="member: 55324">The question wasn't directed at me, but I'll answer anyway.Like Th_SQ, I don't remember seeing a Garden Warbler dipping it's tail, but on the other hand, I really haven't paid much attention to the tail movements of Garden Warblers... You mentioned that the dipping didn't fit the typical flicking of Booted Warbler, either (perhaps it fitted better Olivaceous Warbler, but the bill looks rather short).I agree with Th_SQ that the wings look rather long, too, but judging the shape or length of the wings from photographs of flying passerines is something that I haven't much experience of (but at least sometimes it works). Nevertheless, Garden Warblers have longer wings than Booted Warblers. A photo showing the primary projection could remove much of the uncertainty.If the bird was clearly smaller than a Garden Warbler, then it probably wasn't one. However, as many previous id threads and real life examples have illustrated, people sometimes judge the size of birds wrongly. This is not a personal but general remark, it is just very difficult to assess a record of a rare species if the only reported differences to a more common species are the behaviour and size (or perhaps it is easy, by just leaving it unidentified...). As in this case there are pictures, you could of course submit them to some warbler expert, and see if you get any response (or perhaps to several experts, and see if they agree).</blockquote>

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