ML274790081

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Nice views in the canopy, photos. This is an odd whistler, which if I recollect right, Rob Hutchinson found by its call. It was sitting in the mid-canopy, above our heads, show the photos are backlit. The new field guide "Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago" (2016), whose lead author is Rob's BirdTourAsia partner James Eaton, explains: "Great plumage variability among races makes further partitioning into narrowly-defined species likely. More study required, particularly in complex vocalizations. . . found singly, favouring mid-canopy." Of course we didn't have that field guide in 2011, but Rob Hutchinson is one of the most knowledgeable filed observer on Halmahera. The race here is "cinerascens," assigned by Clements to the "Drab" set of subspecies, is described in the new field guide as "grey-brown head and upperparts, off-white throat, greyish breast with paler belly sometimes tinged yellow." Even though this bird was pointed out to us by one of the world's leading field ornithologists on Wallacea, I write all this (in 2020) because twice someone has put my initial photo back into the review queue, with words like "some kind of flycatcher? Ficedula?". No, its Drab Whistler, a very variable species. Race "cinerascens" is not even shown in the new field guide, and the older guide has a very poor painting. I've also added another photo, not all that different, this gives more context to its preferred mid-canopy niche. I've also looked through eBird photos of all the races, and they are dramatically different. One race, "johni" on Obi, is very cinnamon-breasted [this is split by Eaton et al. as a species; it is a Group in eBird currently]. Even within subspecies, it is easy to find birds with dark, contrasting crowns and faces (maybe males?) while others (as in my photos) have a less-contrasty and pale face dominated by even paler lores and around the eye. One sees that same pattern of variation in the Obi photos as well. It looks to me like the Drab Whistler is a very under-studied species.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D

ISO

2500

Focal length

420 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/8000 sec

Dimensions

1292 pixels x 849 pixels

Original file size

156.52 KB