Birdwatch UK October 2017

http://www.birdguides.com/birdwatch Birdwatch•October 2017 41

IDENTIFICATION

11 Pale-legged Leaf Warbler (Tai Po Kau, Hong Kong, 21 September 2016). With plain tertials and a plain crown, this is an Arctic Warbler-

like, large Phylloscopus. Could it be that species? The dark-looking bill, contrasting greyish crown and strikingly pale pink legs are all clues that

this is no Arctic Warbler; rather it is a Sakhalin/Pale-legged Leaf Warbler. In life, the distinctive neurotic demeanour of these two very similar

species, together with an equally distinctive high-pitched call, would be even more striking, but separation on plumage remains problematic.

11

STEVE NUTTALL

10 Eastern Crowned Warbler (Bempton Cliffs RSPB, East Yorkshire, 6 October 2016). The pale central crown stripe might for a moment

suggest Pallas’s Warbler, but the plain tertials show that we are dealing here with a large leaf warbler species. This is sufficient to identify this

bird as Eastern Crowned Warbler, but take in the other features, too: barely visible double wing-bars, a rather ‘bright’ or ‘open’ face pattern (a

function of somewhat plain ear coverts) and beautiful moss-green upperparts, with no contrasting yellow rump.

10

PETER AND MICHELLE WONG

1710 p37-43 ID photo guide leaf warblers FIN.indd 41 21/09/2017 15:51:18