wgeoff

Can somebody give me some help on this warbler, seen on the South Peninsular grasslands of Po Toi this morning. It seemed quite large in flight but I don't think its an Oriental Reed?



The head pattern seems to fit Paddyfield Warbler but I've never seen this species before so I don't know if the rest is right

wgeoff

Jonathon has listed all the reasons why it could be a Paddyfield Warbler but the master has spoken.

wgeoff

Thanks to all for their comments.

I had thought the supercillium too long behind the eye, the throat and upper breast rather too cleanly white and the tail too dark and oddly shaped for an Oriental Reed.
I should have looked in the Photographic Guide where there are some very similar photos of Oriental Reed. I'm not too experienced with Oriental Reed on Po Toi - one of the problems of patch birding.

And I put the bird's static behaviour entirely down to my excellence at pishing.

wgeoff

I see one or two a year, mostly in spring, quite rare in autumn - see this chart



This shows how much we need a proper wetland feature on Po Toi. I tried to create one a few years ago where there used to be paddyfields but it's too much effort for one person to maintain. It would open up a new set of species.

[ Last edited by wgeoff at 16/10/2010 08:12 ]

wgeoff

Black-browed Reed Warbler is much rarer on Po Toi than Oriental Reed Warbler - no records in spring, only a few in autumn



including this bird seen last November



Paul Leader also had one on 23rd October 1997 in his original survey of Po Toi but these are the only records to my knowledge.

The reason there are no spring records is probably because Black-browed Reed does not winter in The Philippines (whereas Oriental Reed does), and most of the birds seen on Po Toi in spring are from The Philippines.
If I had a Black-browed Reed in spring, it would be worth looking at carefully as a possible Streaked.

[ Last edited by wgeoff at 18/10/2010 18:27 ]