Monday 4th Jan, an email received from Romain Lorrillière, a Phd Student of our lab and a 2cy-ringer, asking to have a look at the following website to help with identifying a warbler caught in at a garden feeder on 30th December 2009 at Saint-Just, near Redon, in Brittany, France.
http://picasaweb.google.com/romainlorrilliere/CapturerLe30122009ASaintJust35?authkey=Gv1sRgCPqOoqy-p5fFVA&feat=email
My first opinion was for a Central Asian (halimodendri) LW, as this is more 'classical' for a winter lesser whitethroat. The wing length (66mm) and pattern of outer tail feathers looked very good, but I wanted to have an expert opinion, as I have seen only a few halimodendri myself (in Kuwait). On Tuesday, I emailed Lars Svensson, to discover a few minutes later that he was in fact just sitting above my head in Paris, first floor, studying goldfinch skins at the MNHN! Half an hour later Lars confirmed that the bird had to be a Central Asian Lesser Whitethroat Sylvia curruca halimodendri, the wing being too long for minula, and the extend of white on the juvenile outer tail feathers excluding western curruca and siberian blythi.
There was a previous record of an undetermined eastern LW minula / halimodendri which wintered in Eastern France from Nov 2002 to Jan 2003, but the bird was not identified to subspecies.
Below is a halimodendri/minula -type bird photographed in Kuwait in April 2008.
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