Thursday, 19 September 2013

Wood Warblers perhaps

Generally we don't see that many groups of birds during the summer months but the last week or so has been different. Every morning we have a gang of what we think are young Wood Warblers invade our Christmas tree and hop around for about an hour and then disappear.


This morning they ventured onto the grass...

They must be after some food but it is not possible to see what.

They are interesting to watch though and cute.

Any thoughts Tim...
Posted by Colin and Elizabeth at 18:09
Labels:

2 comments:

Tim said...

They look more like Willow-Chiffs to me...
Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff are almost impossible to tell apart so are lumped as Willow-Chiffs by birders#...
unless you hear them sing...
Pauline tells of a clearly identified Willow Warbler that had been measured* and ringed by an expert...
on release it flew into a tree and went "Chiff Chaff"!

[*There are differences in the primary wing feathers and leg colour... ALLEGEDLY!]

[# tickers/twitchers wouldn't even bother... they had them on their tick list eons ago! They would be looking for the vague wing bars that would indicate a Siberian Chiffchaff... or even a Greenish Warbler [still a brown bird]!

Wood Warblers are much more obviously deep yellow on the chin and breast.

HOWEVER... young birds tend to hang around in loose gangs...
causing trouble....
[no difference there then]....
to ornithologists...
the bottom two pictures with a yellow tinge could almost be of a Wood Warbler.

What they are feeding on is far easier... insects crawling amongst the needles...
don't forget...
it is all a matter of scale...
a tiny insect amongst those needles...
to them...
would seem like a sausage roll to us!!

20 September 2013 at 09:26
Colin and Elizabeth said...

Thanks Tim very interesting info.

20 September 2013 at 18:59

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)