tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068383115748161076.post3949453388665984750..comments2024-02-05T08:13:50.661+00:00Comments on Wild About Mull: Lucky breakBryan Rainshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06196718595269522690noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068383115748161076.post-49122747560038194352009-11-07T14:57:23.642+00:002009-11-07T14:57:23.642+00:00Cheers for the comments guys - I've checked al...Cheers for the comments guys - I've checked all the info that I have and I'm still non the wiser! Gary - if you want to send me an email bryan(at)wildaboutmull.co.uk I'll send you the best of the photos.<br />Thanks again.Bryan Rainshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06196718595269522690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068383115748161076.post-32378552759076694112009-11-06T08:45:31.371+00:002009-11-06T08:45:31.371+00:00"sibe" chiffs are a bit of a nightmare !..."sibe" chiffs are a bit of a nightmare !<br /><br />The key seems to be the lack of olive and yellow tones... The traditional idea of sibe chiff is of a bird showing brown/grey ground colour, whitish underparts and buffy flanks/supercilium. <br /><br />Siberian chiff should lack any yellow tones (except in many cases a small amount on the underwing coverts). Olive tones should be limited and restricted to just wing/tail feather fringes, rump and scapulars... the nape and crown should be lacking any olive tones....<br /><br />In the field most of the sibe chiff candidates I have seen have been brown/grey looking with white underparts, buffy flanks and a peachier looking face. They've always shown black legs and bill too.... <br /><br />Your bird does not look like a traditional sibe chiff to me from this one pic...... but I know from my own experiences with these chiffs that colour reproduction in photos can vary a lot with different light conditions. To be honest I'm struggling to actually see olive tones on this bird (but the photo won't enlarge when I click on it, so I am straining my eyes a bit !), it does appear to have white underparts, buffy flanks and black bare parts colour... all of which you could argue are good for "sibe" chiff. Did this bird show olive tones or any yellow in the plumage ? Is that mantle olive ? Are those undertail coverts yellowish ?<br /><br />This is just the visual stuff, but the call you mention is interesting too. Currently its generally accepted that the piping call that sounds a bit like a dunnock (or bullfinch) is a bit of a diagnostic feature of this form of chiff (by which I mean tristis and fulvescens). <br /><br />I’ve got some recent pics and stuff on my blog..... <br /><br />You can hear the call of a “presumed” sibe chiff here....<br /><br />http://newtonstringer.blogspot.com/2009/10/siberian-chiffchaff-calling.html<br /><br />plus some pics here...<br /><br />http://newtonstringer.blogspot.com/2009/10/low-newton-long-nanny-25th-oct-2009.html<br /><br />&<br /><br />http://newtonstringer.blogspot.com/2009/10/tin-church-low-newton-23rd-oct-2009.html<br /><br />Also worth reading this....<br /> http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=1203<br /><br />Having said all of this, it seems to me that understanding of chiff forms seems to be changing all the time.... and I gather there are large areas of overlap where different races intergrade.... so it’s not straightforward at all..... like I said a bit of a nightmare, and if you think about it too much you’ll get a headache !!<br /><br />Have you got any more pics of this bird ?Ghost of Stringerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13731973883798167086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7068383115748161076.post-277125454806629392009-11-05T19:42:33.161+00:002009-11-05T19:42:33.161+00:00Cracking views Brian, doesn't look like Sibe t...Cracking views Brian, doesn't look like Sibe to me either but as to what it is (that's a shrug).Alan Tilmouthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10201030182018368937noreply@blogger.com