Unidentified warbler (1 Viewer)

[anthonyvear]

14th March 2024. Weald of Kent UK. Photos by a neighbour. I'm puzzled by the bold yellow bar on shoulders and the lack of any face markings combined with general bright yellow colouration. Should be a chiffchaff at this time of year, or a willow warbler. Or something else ?

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello,

I agree with you its either a Chiffchaff or a Willow Warbler (or a rare Iberian Chiffchaff, excluded by location?).
Head pattern is regular somewhat clouded/difficult to judge in dead birds, by ruffled/misplaced feathers? and more? So I would nearly skip this.
Presence and appearant boldness of the yellow patch at the wingbend is exagerrated by the unnatural open wing position of the dead bird imo.

And yes, date is much better for a Chiffchaff, as seems very short pp.

If the corpse of the poor bird is still available, mabe soneone can check it for an vagrant Iberian Chiffchaff?

 

[THE_FERN]

Agree this looks better for chiffchaff although it's very yellow.

 

[Butty]

Looks fine for Phylloscopus + short primaries + dark legs = chiffchaff. And hugely more likely than anything else.

 

[Brian J Small]

A simple ID as Chiffchaff based on length of p1, which is long - much longer than primary coverts. WW has a short p1 - equal to length of Primary coverts.

 

[anthonyvear]

Thank you all for your careful consideration. Sadly the bird is no longer available for further study. Iberian chiffchaff did briefly cross my mind but common things are common and a chiffchaff ticks all the right boxes and dead birds have a habit of looking very different in the hand to ones flitting about in the environment.