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| SPECIES GUIDE >>
WARBLERS PART III |
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Lemon-rumped
Warbler Phylloscopus chloronotus |
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Lemon-rumped
Warbler Phylloscopus chloronotus
coyright Jan Willem den Besten
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| The
Lemon-rumped Warbler
is common in the hill forests
of the Himalayas, from northern
Pakistan across to Arunachal
Pradesh, spending the summers
at higher altitudes in coniferous
forest, oak and rhododendron,
moving in the winter to lower
altitude forest and secondary
growth, with a few records in
the northern plains. It is one
of my favourite birds because
it is a real little gem. Its
name comes from its bright pale
yellow rump, which can be quite
difficult to see unless the
bird hovers, which fortunately
it does frequently, as it daintily
picks off tiny invertebrates
from the edges of leaves. It
is a very small, rather dumpy
warbler with olive green upperparts
and whitish below. It has a
distinctive head pattern with
a broad |
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yellowish supercilium,
a pale yellow stripe in the centre of
the crown, with dark olive borders, much
darker than the olive green mantle. A
very good field character is the bold
dark, almost black, eyestripe which broadens
behind the eye, and curves down to form
a little dark corner to the ear coverts.
It shows two yellowish wing bars (although
as with most warblers which have wing
bars, the lower wing bar is the boldest,
while the upper wing bar is sometimes
indistinct). It has a dark bill and pale
legs. In the winter it is usually found
in mixed species flocks, often in pairs,
feeding in trees and sometimes lower down
in shrubs as well. The call is a high-pitched
tsip.
Two other very small warblers are often
encountered in the same mixed species
flocks as Lemon-rumped. They are also
altitudinal migrants, moving to the lower
hills in the winter. The Buff-barred
Warbler has distinctive orangey-buff
wing bars, with one, formed by the tips
of the greater coverts, always present
with a less distinct bar above it (along
the median coverts) sometimes visible.
It has dark olive green upperparts and
the underparts show a dull yellowish wash.
It has a narrow pale grey crown stripe
and a narrow, pale yellow supercilium.
Unlike the Lemon-rumped Warbler, the Buff-barred
Warbler has white outer tail feathers
which are easiest to see when the bird
is flicking its tail or when it is hovering,
when its small yellowish rump patch may
also be glimpsed. It has a high pitched,
rather abrupt swit call. The legs are
pale, as is the base to the lower mandible.
The Ashy-throated Warbler
is reminiscent of Lemon-rumped in also
showing a yellow rump and pale yellow
wing bars. However, its head pattern is
quite different with grey on the ear-coverts
and throat, extending down to the breast,
contrasting with the yellowish belly and
undertail coverts. It has a long greyish,
rather than yellowish, supercilium and
a pale grey crown stripe, set between
dark grey sides to the crown. Like the
Buff-barred, it also has white outer tail
feathers, again best seen when the bird
is hovering, but the yellow rump is bolder,
its contrasting grey-yellow underparts
are distinctive and the wing bars are
yellow rather than orange. Its legs and
bill appear dark. Its short zit
call is quite similar to that of Buff-barred. |
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Buff-barred
Warbler Phylloscopus pulcher
coyright Sumit Sen |
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Ashy-throated
Warbler Phylloscopus maculipennis
coyright Sujan Chatterjee
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Brook's
Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus subviridis |
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Brook's
Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus
subviridis
coyright Amano Samarpan; 2004 |
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| A
real speciality of the Delhi
area is the Brook’s
Leaf Warbler, which
breeds in the Himalayas of northern
Pakistan and winters mainly
in the northern plains from
Punjab to Uttar Pradesh, particularly
favouring acacias, often close
to water. Clearly an uncommon
bird, one of the best places
to see it is at Sultanpur jheel
in Haryana. It is a very small,
energetic warbler, tending to
stay high up in the canopy.
Its distinctive call, a single
peeeet, will help to
locate it. It forages mainly
by hovering, which it does almost
constantly, reaching out to
pick at the tips of leaves.
Overall one gets the impression
of a rather pale warbler with
a warm yellowish (even buffish
yellow) tone on the underparts
and head and pale greenish olive
upperparts. The distinctive
head pattern shows a darkish
line through the eye, a bold
yellow supercilium, an olive
green crown with a faint greenish-yellow
central crown stripe. The rump,
which is best seen when the
bird is hovering, is pale yellow.
On the rare occasions when the
bird is still, it will show
a pale yellow double wing bar,
the lower one being much more
prominent, and a hint of a dull
grey edges to the secondaries
visible on the closed wing.
The lower mandible of the bill
is fleshy pink, with a dark
tip, whilst the legs are |
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dull and dark, but not black.
It tends to feed on its own and individuals
seem to occupy defined winter home ranges,
or territories: certainly one can often
relocate a bird on subsequent visits to
the same belt of trees. |
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