the warblers of Menetries

Édouard Ménétries was a French Entomologist. He was born in  October 2, 1802  and died on  April 10, 1861. (thank you Wikipedia!).

This 2 cy male visited us yesterday. A decent amount of birders gathered for the twitch and enjoyed it.

Sub specific ID of this individual is still unclear to me. It Definitely  lacks the reddish pink throat and breast that the Nominate race shows but for me it is still a bit to pinkish and the dark hood is not as extensive as I expect in mystacea.  The bird shows a clear moult limit in the tertials- the middle one was replaced by an adult type which is very different then the worn brownish juv. feathers.

Surprisingly this morning a female was also netted!

This type is rather similar to juv. Subalpine Warbler females, but is separated easily by the black tail.

Catching 3 Menetries's warblers in one week is definitely a rare and interesting case.

 Ringing in the last few days is going strong with 258 birds yesterday and a bit less today. Among the many Lesser Whitethroats some Ruppell's Warblers are caught. This male's forehead is colored yellow by probably Ochradanus bacatus Pollen.

Some good birds were seen recently in the area- an Oriental Turtle dove at k19 cowshed, Semi Collared Flycatcher north of the IBRCE, a male White throated Robin near the southern date palms groves, and today Itai had a Purple Gallinule at Aqaba's Birdwatching park!

  The north beach is still slow, even though, today a first flock of 13 Common Terns flew in and 2 Pomarine Skuas were seen . I actually took this photo yesterday, when there were more birdwatchers on the shore than bird out at sea…

Raptors are also passing in good numbers and as we approach April some more species are expected soon, so stay posted!