----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Brian Finch <birdfinch@gmail.com>
To: Itai Shanni <itaisha1@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wed, 28 April, 2010 18:03:17
Subject: Nairobi phylloscopus

Hi Itai,
Can you please send in this thanks to all who helped out with the
Phylloscopus and the Sengi.
Best for now
Brian

RESULTS OF THE NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK UNIDENTIFIED PHYLLOSCOPUS

Dear All,
A big thankyou for all that contributed to the identification of the
mystery phylloscopus in Nairobi National Park.
The final conclusion…… it will never be identified from the images and
information that has been supplied. Whilst the record cannot go any
further, the event does go to show that we should be aware that
something different can turn up and when found we should be vigilant
enough to obtain absolutely everything about it as possible.

As a matter of interest the respondents who took the trouble to put
keyboard to screen supplied the following advice, which are very
interesting, and whilst this one definitely “got away” we will be more
ready for the next!

Many thanks to Neil and Liz Baker for sending in a rather large pdf
which became very useful.

Thanks everyone,

Brian

….. and thanks also for all who gave advice on locating the Sengi
images, I have sent all of this information on.

Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 12:40 PM
David Fisher <d.j.fisher@ntlworld.com> Have you progressed at all with
your possible Arctic Warbler? While I think it might be that species,
the thing that puzzles me is why you didn't notice any wing-bars on it
- and why there is no suggestion of this in the video grabs. I
appreciate that it was mostly seen and photographed from below, but
one or two of those grabs do show the edge of the wing though its
difficult to make out any detail.

unidentified phylloscopus nairobi np
Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 12:15 PM Dick Forsman <dick@dickforsman.com> Wed,
Mar 31, 2010 at 12:15 PM
To: Brian Finch <birdfinch@gmail.com>
Hi Brian,
Thanks for this, although not a raptor!
First of all, sorry for being late, but I've been travelling and got
back just two days ago.
Combining what I can extract from your verbal description and the
videograbs, I can only reach the conclusion, that the bird
is a Wood Warbler.
It would be the only fair-sized Phyllosc with silk-white underparts
(as you say, some lack the yellow breast and throat),
longish wings, green upperparts and prominent head-markings, all
features, which are obvious in this bird. I cannot find any
features contradicting a Wood Warbler id. Some strongly marked Willows
can approach this bird with respect to some of the
mentioned characters, but surely you would not find them all in one
bird. Small Siberian Phylloscs (like Yellow-browed) can
also appear similar, with prominent head patterns and whitish
underparts, but they are very tiny and fast-moving.
Maybe you had reached a conclusion already?
Keep well,
Dick


Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 11:33 AM
Itai Shanni <itaisha1@yahoo.com> To: Brian Finch <birdfinch@gmail.com>
Hi Brian,
hope that all is well. very interesting the Warbler, but i'm still not
100% convinced for Arctic and think that it will be very hard to pass
this as a first
for Sub-Sahara with this photos. wish you had a good look (photo) of the wing...
keep these records coming in though as it is keeping everybody alert!

From: Valéry Schollaert
Sent: samedi 29 mars 2010 9:11
To: Patrick L'HOIR
Subject: RE: Phylloscopus à identifier
Bonjour Patrick,
De ce que je peux voir sur tes photos, j'aurais tendance à
l'identifier comme Pouillot
boréal.  (Arctic Warbler) Ou as-tu pris la photo?
Bien à toi,
Valéry

From: Damien Thiebault
Sent: Dimanche 30 mars 2010 8:23
To: Patrick L'HOIR
Subject: RE: Phylloscopus à identifier
Salut Patrick,
Content d'avoir de tes nouvelles.
Pour ce qui est de l'identification, cela n'est pas si facile car on
ne voit jamais les
couvertures alaires. Mais je pencherais vers le Pouillot boreal
(Arctic Warbler) plus que pour un autre.
J'espère que cela t'aidera un peu.
A bientôt je l'espère
Damien




Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 11:20 AM
FW: unidentified phylloscopus nairobi np
Rockjumper Birding Tours <guides@rockjumper.co.za>
Reply-To: guides@rockjumper.co.za
To: Brian Finch <birdfinch@gmail.com>
Hi Brian
Thanks for your e-mail and photos, interesting stuff!
Regarding your Phylloscopus photos, it is hard to say with the photo's not
showing full detail of the upperparts. The pale underparts are good for
Booted Warbler, however it seems too large and the head pattern is wrong.
Perhaps a vagrant Arctic Warbler.
Kind regards,
David Hoddinott


Re: [tanzaniabirds] Fw: the nairobi phylloscopus
Colin Beale <cb751@york.ac.uk> Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 2:44 PM
Reply-To: tanzaniabirds@yahoogroups.com
To: tanzaniabirds@yahoogroups.com
No photos to back up anything I'm about to say, I'm afraid. But I have
looked at rather a lot of willow warblers in the past. Firstly, I would
say that on the basis of this single photo I'd be extremely wary of
trying to identify the bird! I'll stick to the questions and a few
general points.
(1) I've seen (and handled) strikingly pure grey and white willow
warblers on migration in Lebanon before - much paler and whiter than
most of the birds wintering around here in Arusha. Always had long wings
and I suspected them of being yakutensis race birds from a very long way
east. These birds can have very pale tail feathers. (They also take a
careful look to make sure they're not one of the occasional white wood
warblers we also used to see.)
(2) Some very fresh willow warblers (as they should be now) do show
narrow white edges and tips to the remiges - but usually very narrow.
I've never seen anything that conspicuously white-edged. But in the
photo I'm not 100% convinced we're not just looking at the light right
through a (uniformly) pale feather. Is it definitely not an artefact of
the bright sky behind things?
(3) Fresh adult willow warblers can definitely have nice rounded UTCs -
I even spotted a few showing nicly on a google image search just now...
So, in summary, I certainly won't hazard an identification from the
photo, but certainly wouldn't rule out willow warbler. If there are any
other pics of other parts of the bird from other angles I might have
another try!
That's my thought at least...
C
Nairobi phylloscopus
Brian Finch Sat, Mar 27, 2010 at 10:27 PM
Colin Beale <cb751@york.ac.uk> Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 9:19 AM
To: Brian Finch <birdfinch@gmail.com>
Thanks for this! Definitely an interesting looking bird. The face
pattern is pretty striking in some of those shots, and
certainly the most interesting things about the bird that I can see.
It's clearly not a yakutensis Willow with that colour
showing through in some places, and the face pattern reminded me most
of Arctic warbler rather than Wood - these always
have a strong dark line under the supercilium like this one, but the
the rest of the face is rather 'open' below that (bit like a
Bonelli's), with fairly clear ear coverts and certainly no hint of a
lower moustacial streak or anything like that, which is
almost present in some of the shots. Rather, Arctic has the long back
line, then scaly ear covert markings like those you
see clearly in the last photo. That said, I doubt it is Arctic - the
plumage is clearly very fresh and even though I can't
remember the moult pattern in this species (I know that Greenish are
unmoulted in spring and very tatty) assuming it does
have a late winter moult you should have a nice white wing bar on a
fresh wing which you'd certainly have seen. I'd also
rule Wood warbler out on the basis of structure - as you note the tail
is far too short. And it's clearly not a Chiff. Other African
phylloscs that I can think of shouldn't be so white below and the same
is true of the other Asian species I can think of. So
my best guess is that it has to be a strange Willow, or perhaps a Wood
with some Willow genes... It's certainly not typical
for either, so given the balance of probability I'd expect a strange
Willow over a strange Wood and the structure looks more
like that. But I'd be interested to know what others think - have you
sent it to any of the other bird groups in Europe? I'm sure
you'd get a whole lot of ideas there...
Best wishes,
Colin

Nairobi phylloscopus Bernd de Bruijn <bernddebruijn@hotmail.com> Thu,
Mar 25, 2010 at 10:57 PM
To: Itai Shanni <itaisha1@yahoo.com>, birdfinch@gmail.com
Hi Itai and Brian,
Wow.... whatever it is, it's good! With these white underparts my
first guess would be Greenish, but then in some photos the
body seems quite long and the eyestripe really dark, fitting Arctic -
ties in better with your description of size, leg colour and
movements too. Will forward the pics to a colleague of mine (Ruud van
Beusekome) and a star in phyllos for Dutch
standards - will let you know what he thinks.
Best
Bernd

Nairobi phylloscopus
"Peter Nilsson" <peter@cornix.se>; "Peter Nilsson" <peter@medit.se>
Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2010 5:29 PM
From: "Stein Ø. Nilsen" <stein.nilsen@npolar.no>
To: "birdatlas" <tzbirdatlas@yahoo.co.uk>; "Martin Woodcock"
<timalid@talktalk.net>
Cc: "Peter Nilsson" <peter@cornix.se>; "Peter Nilsson" <peter@medit.se>
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 12:49 PM
Could this be anything else than Arctic W (if not any unknown African
job??) ?? They can have only one faint wingbar, but
this doesn't show on the photos, add a Arctic from Pasvik Valley,
Norway and from ringing in my garden in Tromsø
All the best from a very winterly Tromsø - 1 meter snow on flat ground!
Stein



The final totals tlean towards Arctic Warbler 7 votes, Wood Warbler 1
vote, Willow Warbler 2 votes.