Hi Everyone,
Bill Rutherford here.
I have just got off the phone from John and can add some more detail to the
mystery bird. It does not have a pale eye, which a striking feature of
Orphean warbler and noticeable a some range. ( per obs W. Rutherford).
However first year Orpheans do not have a pale eye and like many other large
sylvia warblers exhibit a dark eye.
The bird does not have white outer tails feathers either which again points
away from Orphean and a number of other contenders, notably the eastern
lesser whitethroat. Sylvia curruca blythi. Again young and first year birds
show much less white in the tail. But agian this is still noticable at some
range.
John also pointed out that the bird had two quite noticable pale wing bars.
This feature rules out all sylvia warblers apart from Barred warbler but
this does not show a dark head in any way. It does however open up the
possibilty of one of the south east Asian flycather warbler group, notably
the genus Seicercus.
The weather here in Perth in fine but windy so efforts to see the bird today
were not rewarded. I am going to try on monday morning if the weather is
good.
regards
Bill Rutherford
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