Teesmouth Bird Club

Hi,

I was at South Gare on the 12th October this year following an East Coast "Fall" the previous weekend that produced the Red-flanked Bluetail and Red-eyed Vireo in the county.

I came across this Lesser Whitethroat which looked pretty washed out to me and thought it might be a candidate for one of the eastern sub-species. I did raise my suspicions to other birders present at the gare at the time, but failed to generate any enthusiasm amongst them.

According to Svensson the pure white in the outer tail feathers indicate an adult; according to Collins pure white outers can also indicate one of the eastern sub-species.

The bird spent a lot of it's time feeding on the ground out of sight, only popping up occassionally to pick, presumably, insects from the Marram Grass stalks.

Ian Forest has posted some excellent images of the same bird in the Common Birds forum under Lesser Whitethroat.

Ian

Hi Ian,  I'll be brave enough to reply but probably not get you any further forward....

Unfortunately, I was away, so didn't see the bird but your's and Ian F's photos both show an overall sandy-brown bird, reminiscent of the 'minula' at South Gare some years ago.  That had a very distinctive jizz in the field too, and I suspect this would have rang alarm bells straight away (perhaps it did?).  The bill, however,  seems be a bit to long for that race.  Coming further south west in range, birds resembling this can be found in pics of 'halimodendri', though they tend to show more contrast between the head and mantle, which your bird doesn't appear to show in the pictures.

All in all, I agree it looks like some eastern form but difficult to pin down to any particular taxa.  Certainly doesn't have the feel of any 'standard' Lesser we normally see.

Hopefully, someone can be more helpful!

Stew

Hi
Agree, looks like an interesting bird, certainly of some eastern form or other. I think the official standpoint is that they can not be assigned to any particular form with 100% certainty so no point in me guessing.
This
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=185356
links to a recent bird on Shetland and a bit more discussion.
Cheers
Richard

Hi Stew, Richard,

Thanks very much for your comments. I have seen Eastern Lesser Whitethroats during my trips to the UAE, but they are usually difficult to see as they tend to feed in the middle of Acacia bushes and because they are relatively common you tend to ignore them in favour of the more exotic species. The Middle-East birders tend to lump the sub-species all together. The two links below show various images of birds photographed in the UAE. Based on bill size there are some good candidates for minula; I agree the South Gare bird's bill to too large for this sub-species.

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/7205449_HTrve

http://www..smugmug.com/gallery/5658906_siR45

Is the record worth submitting to BB to add to the pending pile?

Cheers,
Ian

Came across this article today by Colin Bradshaw on the identification of Central Asian Lesser Whitehroats.

http://www.ntbc.org.uk/central%20asian%20lesser%20whitethroat.html

The conclusion of the article was that Field-only claims if ever acceptable would require :

• Watched for a protracted period of time with close views

• Brown on nape

• Lack of contrast between crown and mantle

• White throat contrasting with peachy or buffy flanks and breast

• Lack of clear dark mask

• Lores paler than usual

• Sandy or pale to mid-brown upperparts

• Short-winged/long-tailed jizz

• Tit-like call

• Preferably tail noted as lots of white in outer tail and centre not contrasting with mantle



The bird was not heard to call unfortunately, but otherwise fulfils the above criteria.

Ian

Agree with your comments Ian.... shame it didn't call.  Spoke to Tom and Graeme this morning about this bird and Tom's understanding is that the BBRC currently only consider trapped records.  Maybe one that gets away I'm afraid :-(

Stew

Hi Ian,
These 'eastern' birds seem to be scarce but regular migrants to the UK.
Your bird shows most of the features given for these forms.

Below are two photo's of another 'eastern' form bird that was trapped at Saltburn on the 31st October 2004.The fairly large bill would rule out minula as would the contrast between the head and mantle colour and it was perhaps closest to halimodendri.
This bird showed extensive white to the 6th tail feather and also a white tip to the 5th.The second primary fell between the tips of the 7th and 8th primary (typical for an 'eastern' form) giving a very rounded,blunt wing.

I doubt that any of these 'eastern' birds could be reliably identified to a certain race without DNA analysis.

Regards
Damian

Hi Stew, Damian,

I agree, probably one that got away but I favour halimodendri!

However if records are witheld from BB as being too difficult to resolve then a false impression can be given of the status of a species. I also remember seeing a very pale Lesser Whitethroat at Hummersea in 2001, which looked more distinctive than the South Gare Desert Lesser Whitethroat.

I feel there is sufficient detail on our images at least to assign it as probable Asian Lesser Whitethroat.

A link below to some superb images of the recent Sumburgh Asian Lesser Whitethroat (minula)

http://hughharropwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2010/11/central-asian-lesser-whitethroat.html

and some more images of the bird in the hand

http://www.nature-shetland.co.uk/naturelatest/latestbirds.htm



Cheers,
Ian

A friend pointed out to me one was trapped the last two days at Holme, Norfolk - in recent photos for comparison - http://noaphotoalbum.blogspot.com/2010/11/eastern-lesser-whitethroat.html and http://noaphotoalbum.blogspot.com/2010/11/lesser-whitethroat-woodcock-and.html

I'm afraid I've no other photos that could help further.

Hi Ian,
I've just looked at your links and this bird would appear almost indentical to the one at South Gare in 2000.
The tail pattern in particular being the same.

One thing I have noticed in the two 'eastern' birds that I have trapped and ringed is that they both had a curiously, milky pale pink/brown eye.

As I discovered this morning after the kids breakfast, it was about the colour of the milk left after they had eaten their Coco Pops !!

I'm not sure if this is indicative of 'Eastern' types or whether any Lesser Whitethroats can show this ?

Damian

It would appear there has been an influx of apparent Eastern Lesser Whitethroats into Western Europe this autumn. The Surfbirds "Europe Stop Press" has images of birds thought to be "minula" (Desert Lesser Whitethroat) from Italy and Belgium.

http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery11&start=13

Ian