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Sunday 17 November 2013

Lesser Whitethroat in my garden again

Edit: there is a good post by Martin Garner here and apparently things have changed a bit since I last looked into it. The race blythi ('Siberian' Lesser Whitethroat) - see paper here, has been reinstated and is the default "eastern" type. This is what I suspect the bird below is.

Popped down to Church Cove today and found this. Seemed to have all the features of halimodendri / minula / blythi type (Central Asian / Desert / Siberian Lesser Whitehroat). Behaving quite unlike a Lesser Whitehroat. Sticking to the upper and mid canopy in tall mature trees. Any thoughts on the race anybody?

 
Apologies for crap photos - light was dire and then camera battery died. Didn't hear it call. Anyway - pretty sure it's not an Orphean Warbler


Peachy flanks and breast contrasting with pale throat



This was after the bird got wet, which probably accentuates the breast colour. Doesn't have much of a mask either and it's pretty clear the brown extends up the nape

Another photo showing the brown extending up the nape. You can see the white on the tail on this photo too


The mask does look slightly darker in this underexposed photo, but you can see the peachy breast


Another blurry photo showing the brown extending all the way up the nape. You can see the white on the tail on this photo too



A less blurry, but rather underexposed photo. The lores look pretty pale (or at least not as dark as I'd expect on a normal one.






Here's a few more taken by Tony Blunden


2 comments:

  1. Hi Ilya
    Seeing that I spend a lot more time on blogger than on Facebook I thought I'd come and say hello to you here. Better late than never I guess, but it was only yesterday that I heard from Ainslie that you have this blog.... Anyway, hope you got my voicemail to say thanks for the Crimbo pressies. Both dad and I loved ours and yep I guessed straight away that it was Kate who wrapped mine :o) Hopefully you arrived safely in Tenn. by now and are having a good time! xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Birds hasbeen always in my interest. I love the way they squick. This blog shares very details about birds which is quite amusing. Thankyou for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

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