Probably 1st record from West Bengal. id- Baikal bush warbler(suggested by Tim Inskipp sir) In his comments he said- It would be very useful in cases where there are differences of opinion about identification if those making suggestions would provide reasons. Here we have a bird suggested as a Plain Prinia by the poster, then someone asked whether it is a Smoky Warbler and this was agreed without any discussion. Ignoring this someone else asks why not booted? followed by an unsupported statement that it is Brown-flanked Bush Warbler, and another that it is Dusky Warbler. These are all rather different birds and if the posters had been obliged to provide reasons they might have realised in the process that it is none of these species. If you look closely at the tail you can see that it is rather broad, loose feathered and rounded at the tip, thus nothing like the long thin tail of a prinia or the short, square-ended tail of a leaf warbler so that immediately rules out all except Brown-flanked Bush Warbler. This last species is a better suggestion given the general colouration and the pale supercilium. However, again the tail helps to eliminate that species - the Cettia bush warblers have tails that narrow towards the base, whereas this bird has a full tail that broadens towards the base. This is a Bradypterus bush warbler and a close look under the tail shows one or two undertail covert feathers with dark and white bars, which narrows the choice down to three species, Spotted, Baikal & West Himalayan. The last of these is paler than the other two and is not known from eastern India. Spotted & Baikal Bush Warblers are very similar but can be separated from good close-up images. Kennerley & Pearson (2010, Reed and Bush Warblers) state that Spotted is warmer, darker and richer brown above than Baikal Bush Warbler. It shows a less prominent and darker grey supercilium and dark grey ear-coverts which merge with the dark grey sides to the neck. The throat and breast are also darker than on Baikal Bush and the belly is greyer. The black spotting on the throat and upper breast of Spotted Bush Warbler typically forms a well-defined necklace. This feature is variable in both species, but in Spotted Bush warbler it is set against the dark grey upper breast, while on Baikal Bush the upper breast is never dark or grey. Based on this I suggest this is probably Baikal Bush Warbler - the upperparts are plain rather than warm brown; the supercilium is obvious and whitish; the ear-coverts are pale rather than dark grey; the throat & breast are pale and spotting on the breast is reduced to a few indistinct spots on the side of the breast, which is pale, not dark or dark grey. Jalpaiguri. West Bengal. December.2014
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 12:11:21 +0000
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