ML173855081

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

One was seen foragingin the vegetation near the islands research centre paths. Myself and a group offriends were visiting the islands during the summer. On the night of the 12.08.2018we stayed on the island of Deserta Grande to watch the seabirds but we also enjoyedthe confiding land birds that were on the islands. In addition to the commonerspecies there we also spotted Eurasian Collared Dove and a pale brown SylviaWarbler which we identified as a Common Whitethroat.   Initially it was found by myself, at whichpoint I called over the other birders who were in our group. Initial reactionwhen I informed them that I had found a Whitethroat was dismissal, suggesting thatit was a Spectacled Warbler. However, when they set eyes on the bird they immediatelyagreed that the bird was indeed a Common Whitethroat. It continued to forage in the vegetation,sometimes showing well but more often being typically elusive.  The most strikingfeature of the bird was its larger size. My personal experience with SpectacledWarbler involves a few sightings in rural Spain, where I was struck by howsmall and delicate they were. Whitethroat on the other hand is a species I amvery familiar with from my birding in Britain. This bird was clearly too large andnot delicate enough to be a Spectacled Warbler. The bill is rather stocky, incontrast to what would be expected from Spectacled Warbler.  Analysing thephotos we took removed all doubt about the identification. The bird clearlyshows a primary projection too great for Spectacled Warbler, with one photo clearlyshowing at least 7 primary tips extending beyond the tertials. The tertialsclearly have large dark rounded centres, and there are also dark centresvisible on the coverts. The dark eye shows that this is a juvenile bird.In total, six of us saw the bird and we were all happy with the identification as a Common Whitethroat. 

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 70D

Lens

EF400mm f/5.6L USM

ISO

500

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/2000 sec

Dimensions

3302 pixels x 2406 pixels

Original file size

7.79 MB