Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler at Gibraltar Point

Found by Kev Wilson on September 30th and heard to call a few times in the evening I ambled down to Gib on the morning of October 1st not arriving until 09:20! With no sightings since first light and then a brief soighting around 10:15 it was not looking good so I decided to give everyone else a chance and went off for my lunch at about 12:30 guaranteeing that the bird would show while I was away; Oddly on this occasion I got my timing wrong and it suddenly appeared just as I returned to extend the 4 hour vigil and as in birding parlance showed quite well for about 20 minutes on and off but was always very active and difficult to get onto when it did appear in the open; Call was obviously the key element but a few plumage features also point to Eastern which I will attempt to put down as and when but for now a selection of images, several at 3200 ISO due to the dull light. It was good to get something representative on a bird that was hard to see let alone photograph. If accepted a Lincolnshire first completing the Bonelli’s double for Gib. A hobby flew over and two Yellow-browed Warblers were rather vociferous.

Initial shot - with several Chichaffs in the same area you do look twice but when the real bird appears it is unmistakably a Bonelli’s -

Mostly frequenting a very leafy dogwood and occasionally hopping into the bare twigs that protruded from it

Rump, tail and tertials

Strikingly silky white underparts always an immediate pointer

Pale creamy - whitish underwing coverts another pointer as Western supposedly more yellow toned

A test for the auto-focus system

After 4 hours I was beginning to loose hope - just shows how many rare birds we must miss when they are in effect invisible for 90% of the day

Taking white fly? or insect eggs

Very grey toned mantle and scapulars - note also sharper defined pale whitish tertial fringes

The smudgy mark on the lores obvious head-on

Supercilium always obvious and pale eye ring complete with smudgy mark on lores - colours could be affected by reflections of sun off the leaves

For comparison a series of images of a first-winter Western Bonelli’s Warbler at Bempton September 11th 2010 -

Western Bonelli’s Warbler Bempton Setpember 11th 2010 -differences are subtle but pale lores, paler fleshy legs and feet, buff tinged mantle and scapulars and very bright green wing panel - supercilium in obvious and pale eye ring hard to define

same bird as above showing same features on head and upperparts

Western Bonelli’s bempton 2010 - open faced head pattern with little definition to supercilium and poorly defined pale eye ring - dull greyish-buff fringes to tertials cf Gib bird

Brighter greeny - yellow rump and tail feather fringes and the very open faced impression again obvious here — the tertial fringes are diffuse and ill defined comparted to the whiter sharper fringes on the Gib bird above

Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler Pissouri Bay, Cyprus April 11th 2008 a different looking bird in spring - this individual was feeding in the shade under a tree canopy hence colours are somewhat muted

Same bird as above April 11th 2008 - note pale tertial fringes but more worn than the October bird

Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler Cyprus April 11th 2008 -

Same bird as above note dark smudge on lores

same bird - underparts look less white than normal due to deep shade and reflected light from ground

same bird as above