Birdwatch UK October 2017

http://www.birdguides.com/birdwatch Birdwatch•October 2017 37

The main item on many birders’ agendas as autumn deepens is to

find a ‘Sibe’ – those species that have wandered from Siberia west to

Britain, rather than south to their true wintering grounds in the Indian

subcontinent and South-East Asia. Of particular interest are the wing-

barred Phylloscopus or leaf warblers, often referred to as ‘sprites’

owing to their diminutive size and flitting behaviour. They can be very

hard to tell apart, but Andy Stoddart has all the gen you will need to

score your own Yellow-browed Warbler, or perhaps something rarer.

JONATHAN

LETHBRIDGE

(WWW.JUSTBIRDPHOTOS.COM)

❯

IDENTIFICATION

1

1 Yellow-browed Warbler (Geosetter, Shetland, 10 October 2010). Though arboreal specialists, migrant leaf warblers sometimes have to

cope with the bleakest of coastal habitats. This wire fence is a typical setting on Shetland, where trees are few and far between.

PHOTO GUIDE

Yellow-browed, Hume’s Leaf,

Pallas’s, Eastern Crowned and

Pale-legged Leaf Warblers

ANDY STODDART is

Vice Chairman of the

Rarities Committee and

a member of the BOU

Records Committee.

He is also author of

several books and

numerous ID papers.

PROFILE

1710 p37-43 ID photo guide leaf warblers v3.indd 37 13/09/2017 17:13:05