BIRD 1

Broken white eyering Here we have an essentially grey or grey-brown bird with a thin, insect-eater’s bill, rounded wings and a long tail. Also obvious is the fact that the ‘puffy’ throat is clean white, contrasting with the buffer tones of the breast and belly. And, while examining the head, note the broken white eye-ring and, if you look very closely, you may see that the shaded iris is not dark. The long grey tail has white outer tail feathers. The structure of the bird suggest a pipit or a warbler. Its unstreaked underparts should steer you away from our pipits or the streaked Sedge Warbler, which does sing in flight. It appears to be one of the whitethroats. Lesser Whitethroats don’t sing in flight and have darker bills and eyes and shorter tails. This is a Whitethroat.

KEY FEATURES †Thin bill and rounded wings suggests small insect-eater †Overall grey brown plumage and white throat †Yellowish base to bill, white eye-ring ‘pale’ eye †Long tail with white outer tail feathers