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Please Id this chat? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Ains
- Start date
Larry Sweetland
Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Grey Bushchat
Would be massively out of range.
Of the two, I only have experience of pied and the strong eyebrows I think favour grey. Is it in range there?
Larry Sweetland
Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Must admit I didn't check range, but certain features still look more like Grey to me: strength of super, whiteness of throat, length of tail....
paddyluke
Well-known member
my App agrees with you
Sorted! 🤔
Vyomkesh
Well-known member
Doesn't match with any other Bushchat/Stonechat in the region. After asking my friends, a Grey Bushchat for me though @Vyom B. Vyas can share more light on it.
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PaulCountyDurham
Well-known member
Whatever it is, he or she is a beauty!
JWN Andrewes
Poor Judge of Pasta.
Grey was my first thought too. If unexpected, out of range birds didn't turn up from time to time then many of us would be leading much duller lives....
Looking through photos of both species, the contrasting white throat (as in the OP's bird) does seem a good feature for grey bushchat 
. . . maybe with a few white-throated pied bushchats to confuse?!
macaulaylibrary.org
. . . maybe with a few white-throated pied bushchats to confuse?!
ML392930821 - Pied Bushchat - Macaulay Library
Macaulay Library ML392930821; © Ambady Sasi; Idukki, Kerala, India
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Harrybongo
Well-known member
Looks like a female Grey bushchat to me.
Harrybongo
Well-known member
Yeah, female Grey Bushchat!
johnallcock
Well-known member
Structurally, this doesn't look like a Grey Bushchat to me. It seems small-headed, small-billed and short-tailed, closer in structure to a Stonechat. I also think that the head pattern is not as well defined as I would expect for a Grey Bushchat - supercilium too short, white throat not very well defined and without contrast between ear coverts and nape (usually subtle but often visible on female Grey in my experience).
It looks better for a female Pied Bushchat to me, although I concede that the pale supercilium and throat would be unusual for that species.
It looks better for a female Pied Bushchat to me, although I concede that the pale supercilium and throat would be unusual for that species.
Grahame Walbridge
Well-known member
A very intriguing bird John. Agree, structurally, it looks closer to Pied but there are anomalies in the plumage; the combination of rather strong supercilium, whitish throat and rufous bases to outer rectrices are at odds with that species. Might it be the product of mixed parentage?
Grahame
I've been puzzling over this bird for a few days now and Grahame and I discussed it privately yesterday. My initial impression was that it was a Pied, especially in the first image - it's over-exposed but the underparts are fairly dusky, the orange rump contrasts with the darkish upper tail and the supercilium, although quite bold, doesn't look as long or as white as on Grey. However, the tail looks a tad long even in the first image, and as Grahame has pointed out, the orange rump extends to the sides of the base of the tail, which is apparently not typical. In the second image, the tail looks really long, although this impression may be exaggerated by the angle it's being held at, the supercilia look bold and contrasting and the throat looks rather white. In addition, the outer tail feathers look rather rufous. This all gives a Grey-like feel.
I then remembered a bird which wintered in Abu Dhabi a few years back, which I recalled showed quite a strong supercilium in certain light conditions. You can see some images here - nos. 5-16: Pied Bush Chat. Note how much the appearance of the bird varies from image to image. In particular, in image no.8 taken by Oscar Campbell, the supercilia look bold and meet at the base of the bill, just as they do in the OP bird, the whitish throat looks quite contrasting and the outer tail feathers look quite reddish. All rather different to the following three images taken by Mark Smiles. It's also worth noting how much shorter the tail looks than that of the OP bird in all the images.
The bird photographed in Mirfa in images 17 & 18 looks even more anomalous - it even has quite rich brown ear-coverts which contrast with the nape, a feature that John stated is more typical of Grey, and a clearly demarcated white throat.
Grahame's suggestion of mixed origin may be valid as the tail does look a bit too long for Pied, but I wonder how much we can rely on these images, which may give an anomalous impression.
I then remembered a bird which wintered in Abu Dhabi a few years back, which I recalled showed quite a strong supercilium in certain light conditions. You can see some images here - nos. 5-16: Pied Bush Chat. Note how much the appearance of the bird varies from image to image. In particular, in image no.8 taken by Oscar Campbell, the supercilia look bold and meet at the base of the bill, just as they do in the OP bird, the whitish throat looks quite contrasting and the outer tail feathers look quite reddish. All rather different to the following three images taken by Mark Smiles. It's also worth noting how much shorter the tail looks than that of the OP bird in all the images.
The bird photographed in Mirfa in images 17 & 18 looks even more anomalous - it even has quite rich brown ear-coverts which contrast with the nape, a feature that John stated is more typical of Grey, and a clearly demarcated white throat.
Grahame's suggestion of mixed origin may be valid as the tail does look a bit too long for Pied, but I wonder how much we can rely on these images, which may give an anomalous impression.
Philip Round
Member
Looks perfect for Saxicola ferrea to me
