bittern

Because my camera was pathetically slow, I could only take one picture of this individual warbler at Shek Kong this afternoon.

I cannot decide between Yellow-browed and Arctic: I find it hard to judge whether the bird has a second white bar on its wing, which the shadows or the grainy pixels may have obscured, or whether that bar is faint enough to classify this as an Arctic.

Many thanks for any help!

DSCN4837.JPG (439.78 KB)

1/02/2017 21:59

ajohn

It's a Yellow-browed Warbler. The larger wingbar (on the greater coverts) is much too broad for an Arctic Warbler. You can also see that the bases of the secondaries are dark, creating a 'shadow' behind this wingbar - this is a very useful feature to identify Yellow-browed Warbler. Two-barred Warbler is another similar species, but should have a slightly narrower wingbar without the darker 'shadow'.

Also, the time of year is useful - Yellow-browed Warbler is a very common winter visitor to Hong Kong, but Arctic Warbler is a migrant and is extremely rare in winter (two birds this winter are the first January records ever I think).

bittern

Thanks ajohn!