Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Danged Phyllo

At first I thought I had simply seen one too many North American wood-warblers and that this had rendered me - and only and specifically me - unable to satisfactorily tackle one of the most basic identification exercises in Europe: the differentiation of Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff.


However, upon communicating with other far more experienced birders over the pictures, opinions had ranged from Chiffchaff to as far as Willow Warbler, so either we have all - here in Europe - seen one too many North American wood-warblers or the bird on the pictures (or the pictures themselves) aren't that straight-forward.


Whatever the case may be, I'd be very interested in YOUR opinion as to the bird's identity and if you'd also include a "why" in the "what" (or rather "who"), I'd be thrilled.


Without further ado, here are the pictures:


3 comments:

  1. It's Willow Warbler, no doubt for me, the primary projection beyond the tertials is very short on Chiffchaff and never reaches as far into the tail as on Image 1.

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  2. mmm how do they look in breeding plumage?

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  3. Willow Warbler always in Willows, right?

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