Another look at the Martin Mere Sibes

On Monday I called in at Martin Mere to look for the Siberian chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita tristis  that has been reported at the sewage works. I didn't have a lot of time but managed to locate not only the original bird but also a second Siberian chiffchaff candidate. Then when I got home I did my usual trick of researching the identification of the species and realised that there were at least a couple of features that I hadn't noticed. Doh! One of these days I'll research the id before I go! Also, in my photos the bird appeared to show a slight yellow hue which didn't look quite right, so I wanted another look in the field and perhaps hear it call again.

So with a free morning today I headed back to Martin Mere to try to fill in the gaps in my identification. I managed to see one bird quite well for a period of about five minutes during a four hour wait, though I can't say if this is the original bird or the second bird. 

On some of these photos there's perhaps a little more yellow than might be expected on tristis, but that's an illusion created by the camera. The bird was 100% a tristis, the call was absolutely perfect, "eeep". It's an almost an identical call to the Turkish race of chiffchaff P.c. breverostis which overwinters in good numbers in Cyprus (opens in a new window) and which I'm very familiar with.

Particularly noticeable were the birds jet black legs. The typical chiffchaff that we see in Britain, P.c. collybita has dark legs but they are more dark grey than black.