Seen at Saturday’s beach clean-up. Not the greatest photo, but a Lifer 
More from the clean up in my Gallery
May 022011
One of the tiny, fast, drive me crazy, little birds that you so want to get a decent photo of: The Common Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybitus) ;)
Basra Reed Warbler, Basrarohrsaenger, Acrocephalus griseldis
Another Lifer from last Saturday
The Basra Reed Warbler is (in our region) from Southern Iraq, but might be breeding here in Kuwait. (Not sure about the actual up to date Data – any Info welcome).
He’s a with 15-17cm bit about the seize of a Wagtail for example, but not as big as the Great Reed Warbler with his 16-20cm.
Here you see one photo in comparison to a Wood Sandpiper (18-21cm). I think my fellow here was on the larger side, with around 17cm.
Wood Sandpiper (one-legged?) and Basra Reed Warbler
It’s not easy to tell the difference between a Great Reed Warbler and a Basra Reed Warbler.
Some indicators are a faint grey streaking on the GRW which the BRW is lacking (even though in some of these photos it looks like my BRW has streaks).
Basra Reed Warbler, Basrarohrsaenger, Acrocephalus griseldis
The bill of the BRW is more narrow, longer and more pointed, the supercilium reaches just behind the eye.
Basra Reed Warbler, Basrarohrsaenger, Acrocephalus griseldis
The GRW’s colour is more of a warm grey brown, whereas the BRW is more greenish. The primary projection of the BRW is long (regarding to the Collins, I am not so sure yet how to judge that, maybe I’ll learn it one day).
Basra Reed Warbler, Basrarohrsaenger, Acrocephalus griseldis
All those things can be quite tricky to judge in the field though.
To view the photos larger, click on one and then on the arrow.
Photos are taken with a Nikon D300 & a Nikkor 18-200mm lens
