IDs please RSPB Ham Wall, UK. (1 Viewer)

[Mike Beer]

Hello I am sorting out my pictures and have come across a few photographs all taken the same day at RSPB Ham Wall in 2019,
can I have help with the IDs please. I thought 1. was Reed Warbler and 4. Common Whitethroat. Mike

 

[PaulCountyDurham]

My barely educated suggestion would be 1 chiffchaff.

Edited to add: none of those birds look like whitethroats to me. All of the warblers that look similar: willow warbler, reed warbler, chiffchaff, have a white throat to some extent, reed warbler stands out more, and the eyes look too dark to be whitethroats.

My opinion here is a stab in the dark as I'm just learning, but I'd say 4 at the top looks most like a reed warbler, but I'm not convinced you have a reed warbler in there. I think you have at least one chiffchaff in there and at least one willow warbler.

I'll be interested to hear what posters who know about these things have to say and how wrong I actually am!

 

[PYRTLE]

No.5 is a Phyllocs, Chiffchaff imo as very faint supercilium, not sure if those are primaries or tail feathers. No1 - 3 Reed Warblers.

 

[Mike Beer]

Thank you both for replying. It would have been a lot easier for me if I had named the birds at the time and not try 2 years later. Mike.

 

[THE_FERN]

No.5 is a Phyllocs, Chiffchaff imo as very faint supercilium, not sure if those are primaries or tail feathers. No1 - 3 Reed Warblers.

Agree 1-3, 5. 4 = whitethroat upper (neat white throat, whitish eyering, no sloped forehead, bill shape etc. Lower is another Reed warbler

 

[PaulCountyDurham]

Agree 1-3, 5. 4 = whitethroat upper (neat white throat, whitish eyering, no sloped forehead, bill shape etc. Lower is another Reed warbler

Ha! Back to the drawing board for me!

 

[Mike Beer]

Thanks everyone I managed to get a couple correct for me is a result. Thanks for all your help. Mike.

 

[Mark Lew1s]

I think both birds in number 4 are Reed warbler. The top bird has very long undertail coverts and a short tail for a whitethroat

 

[THE_FERN]

I think both birds in number 4 are Reed warbler. The top bird has very long undertail coverts and a short tail for a whitethroat

Perhaps, but I put it down to the sort of perspective distortion we can see here:
https://macaulaylibrary.org/photo/204444421

(I find the beak here to be the same cylindrical barrel shape as whitethroat and different to reed warbler)

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Perhaps, but I put it down to the sort of perspective distortion we can see here:
https://macaulaylibrary.org/photo/204444421

(I find the beak here to be the same cylindrical barrel shape as whitethroat and different to reed warbler)

But on picture 4 we can clearly see that the bird has very long undertail coverts. I don’t think that foreshortening could make the undertail coverts long and the tail short at the same time

 

[THE_FERN]

But on picture 4 we can clearly see that the bird has very long undertail coverts. I don’t think that foreshortening could make the undertail coverts long and the tail short at the same time

Well that's what I see in the picture I linked. I don't think the op pic gives us all the details. But happy for others to have other views. For me it's clearly not a straight forward reed warbler like the others.

 

[D Halas]

If you compare the two birds in picture 4 point for point, making allowances for the difference in posture, the plumage matches exactly. I think they're both Reed Warblers. The upper bird doesn't seem to have any of the rufous tones in the wing that a Whitethroat should have.