Israbirding.com Forum

Hi all,

Rea uploaded some photos and description to the eilat birding blog:

eilatbirding.blogspot.com/

at photo 1, general impression can be made - the bird appears much browner than palida, the supercilium and eye-stripe are seen well and the lack of any trace of whitish wing panel

at photo 2, same things (mainly brown bird and not grey) from a different angle, small head with steeper forehead (angled to the bill) , slightly richer brown color at lower back/rump

at photo 3, inner web of outer tail feather (t6) - broadly white, also white inner webs to t5 and even to t4.

at photo 4, dark border to supercilium from above is seen well from this angle. eye stripe appear strong in front and also behind eye (weaker behind eye but well exist). Mainly white from below (not as buff as caligata) but with prominent patch at side of breast and rear flanks - much more than any in palida. Note: Jizz approaching almost accrocephalus warblers (somewhat similar to A. agricola).

Although far from easy bird (actually one of the most difficult I ever handled), and probably impossible to identify in the field (unless wintering and thus making birders to give it special attention).

Soon Rea will upload more photos to the web site.

Best
Barak

Dear Barak,
Nice to hear from you. I am after 49h on air and airports from Vanuatu to Zurich (5 flights)..., so will keep it short as I can...

Per your request, I checked the images and biometrics and indeed it is Iduna rama - congratulations!

Here is why it is rama, not the most typical one, but still OK, and can be confirmed as this taxon. You can post/copy my comments if you like... I will divide the ID clues into diagnostics, favorable and negative:

Diagnostics for rama:
- faint dark smudge near the tip of the lower mandible (in the report it said that it did not have it, but in all images there is clear indication of it!).
- twitching up tail movement (the bird did not dip its tail downwards as Olivaceous).

Favorable for rama:
- short primary projection = c. 62.5% (2/3, rather than 3/4 as in as Olivaceous) of the exposed tertial length.
- only a weak emergenation to P6 (in the report it said that it did not have it, but in the image of the spread wing there is slight indication of it!).
- rounded wings with short P2=P7/8.
- grey-brown above with duller brown exposed primaries.
- outer tail-feathers tipped and edged rather boldly whitish.

Negative for rama:
- on the profile image there is somewhat appearance of paler secondary panel on the closed wing (but it is still too faint for typical Olivaceous, or still OK for minority of Sykes’s).
- on the profile image there is somewhat appearance of a whitish mark at the tips of the folded secondaries (but it is still too faint for typical/most Olivaceous).

I hope it helps a bit, and congratulations again to all involved. I could add more comments, but I will do so later on, if I get the time!