Dutch Birding volume 30 (2008) no 1

Western Orphean Warbler at Middelburg in October-November 2003

From 29 October to 5 November 2003, an orphean warbler Sylvia hortensis/crassirostris stayed in a business park at Middelburg, Zeeland, the Netherlands. The bird was discovered through the window of a birder’s office and identified as Western Orphean Warbler S hortensis, on the basis of the buff-coloured underparts (especially undertail-coverts; more whitish in Eastern Orphean Warbler S crassirostris), unmarked undertail-coverts without scalloping (more marked in Eastern Orphean), brownish wash on the upperparts (more silvery grey in Eastern Orphean), diffuse pale area on lower mandible (more distinctive blue-grey area in Eastern Orphean), bill shape with straight underside of lower mandible (bill longer and slightly drooping in Eastern Orphean), and large area of white on inner web of the outer tail-feather. The tail pattern on average differs between both species in the amount of white on the inner web of the outer tail-feather (often less white on inner web in Eastern Orphean); the tail pattern of the Middelburg bird fitted Western Orphean but by itself did not exclude Eastern Orphean. The bird was not conclusively sexed and/or aged; it was either an adult female (most probably) or a first-winter male. This is the first record of an orphean warbler for the Netherlands.
Pim A Wolf, Batenburg 63, 4385 HG Vlissingen, Nederland (pim.wolfgmail.com)Enno B Ebels, Joseph Haydnlaan 4, 3533 AE Utrecht, Nederland (ebelswxs.nl)

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