Dusky Warbler
Phylloscopus fuscatus (Blyth, 1842) (1, 0)
Photo © George Gay - North Ronaldsay, Orkney, 25 October 2023
Ex BBRC species 31/12/2005
STATUS
Eastern Palearctic. Polytypic.
OVERVIEW
This Siberian species arrives here during October and has become so numerous that it has been taken of the BBRC rarities list from 2006.
There is only the one record for this period.
RECORD
1). 1913 Orkney Auskerry, female, shot, 1st October, P. f. fuscatus, now at National Museums of Scotland (NMSZ 1913.238.4).
(W. E. Clarke, Scottish Naturalist 33: 271-273; H. F. Witherby, British Birds 7: 220-223; W. E. Clarke, Scottish Naturalist 34: 7; BOU, 1915; Witherby, 1920-24; Saunders & Clarke, 1927; H. F. Witherby, British Birds 22: 46-47).
History Wm. Eagle Clarke (1913) in the Scottish Naturalist, Vol. XXXIII. pp. 271-273, says: 'During the past autumn I spent nearly five weeks on the Orkney island of Auskerry, arriving there on 3rd September and leaving on 6th October. George Stout accompanied me as my assistant and taxidermist, and Dr. C. B. Ticehurst joined me on 17th September. Auskerry is one of the most easterly islands of the Orcades; is uninhabited, except that it boasts of a lighthouse; is small, being only some 260 acres in area; and lies some three miles south of the large island of Stronsay.
Here on the morning of 3rd October many birds were present on their passage southwards, having arrived the previous night, and among them the bird under consideration - an Asiatic waif known to Indian ornithologists under the name of the Dusky Willow Warbler or Dusky Tree Warbler. This erratic wayfarer was found early in the day amid a patch of nettles, and was at once detected as a stranger, but, being very shy, escaped capture for some time. When secured, it was recognised as a species which had, as yet, no place in the British avifauna. I afterwards identified it as Phylloscopus fuscatus - a finding which was most obligingly confirmed by comparison with specimens in the Tring Museum....The Auskerry example is a female in the fresh plumage of autumn. The upper parts are olive brown, darker on the head; wings and tail dusky, and their feathers edged with externally with olive brown; lores and feathers behind the eye dark brown; a conspicuous buff stripe extends over the eye to the nape; cheeks and ear-coverts mottled brown and buff; chin whitish; throat and abdomen buffy white; breast, axillaries, edge of wing, vent and under tail-coverts buff; flanks deep brownish buff. The fourth and fifth primaries are equal and longest; the second primary is equal to the tenth; and the first or bastard primary is long, being rather more than half the length of the second and extending beyond the primary coverts. Wing 55 mm. (2.18 ins.). Feet dull pale brown; upper mandible blackish, pale at the tip and edges. Base and edges of under mandible yellow, rest dusky. The males are similar in plumage but are rather larger, their wings being from 60 to 66 mm. (2.37 to 2.7 ins.).'
H. F. Witherby (1914) in British Birds, Vol. VII. pp. 220-223, says: 'Mr. W. Eagle Clarke writes to the Scottish Naturalist (1913, pp. 271-3) that during the past autumn he and Dr. C. B. Ticehurst with George Stout were observing migration on Auskerry (Orkneys), and that on October 3rd, 1913, a strange warbler was detected and eventually secured.
This proved to be a female example of the Dusky Warbler (Phylloscopus fuscatus) which breeds in Siberia and winters in India, China, and Japan. This far-eastern species is certainly a remarkable addition to the British List, and it does not appear to have been taken before in Europe, though Gätke thought he saw one on Heligoland on October 24th, 1876.
We give below a full description of this new British warbler, and also some notes regarding its habits which have been kindly contributed by Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker. Adult male and female.
Winter.- Fore-head, crown, mantle, scapulars, and wing-coverts dark olivaceous-brown (often slightly tinged rufous); rump rather paler; upper tail coverts more rufous; lores and behind eye dark-brown; superciliary-stripe (from nostrils to nape) rufous-buff, paler in front of eye; ear-coverts and sides of neck same, mottled dark brown; centre of throat and belly whitish; sides of throat, breast, and under tail-coverts rufous-buff; flanks darker washed greenish-brown; axillaries and under wingcoverts bright pinkish-buff; tail and wing-feathers dark brown with the outer webs more rufous, fringed very pale pinkish-buff on inner webs and narrowly fringed pale buff on the outer webs of the outer primaries. This plumage is acquired by complete moult in September or October....First-winter male and female. - Resembling adults but more yellowish on the centre of the throat and belly and a yellowish rather than rufous tinge on the rest of the under-parts. The juvenile body-feathers are moulted in August but apparently not the wings and tail.
Summer. - Like the adults and moult the same....Measurements and structure. - male wing of twelve 57-66 mm., tail 44-53, tarsus 20-22, bill from skull 12-13. female wing 53-61. First primary about twice primary-coverts and half second primary, second between eighth and tenth (very seldom so long as eighth), fourth and fifth about equal and longest, third and sixth 1-3 mm. shorter, seventh 5 shorter, eighth 7 shorter. Third to sixth emarginated on the outer webs. Secondaries equal to the tenth primary. Bill fine; a few longish rictal bristles. Soft parts. - Bill: upper mandible dark brown, lower yellow; legs and feet yellowish-flesh; iris dark brown. Characters. - The long first primary, rufous-buff eyestripe and under-parts and dark flanks are distinctive.'
Wm. Eagle Clarke (1914) in the Scottish Naturalist, Vol. XXXIV. p. 7, says: 'In the December number of this magazine, p. 271, the date for the occurrence of this new British bird was unfortunately given as 3rd October, it should have been the 1st of that month.'
Admitted nationally in their second List of British Birds (BOU 1915).
Clarke (1927: 238, 3rd ed.) in Saunders's Manual of British Birds, says: 'The first specimen of this eastern species known to have occurred in the British Isle was obtained in 1913 by the Editor [Clarke] during his visit to the island of Auskerry, Orkney, where a female appeared on 1st October.'
H. F. Witherby (1928) in British Birds, Vol. XXII. pp. 46-47, in a Review of W. E. Clarke's 3rd ed. of Saunders's Manual of British Birds, says: 'For years Howard Saunders's Manual was the standard authority for British ornithology until his last (1899) edition became too out of date to be so regarded. The present edition we fear falls short in the accuracy sustained in Saunders's own two editions....There are many details in the book to which we take exception, and there are also certain records which do not appear to have been published previously, and it must suffice to refer here to a few of these items....The date of the first Dusky Warbler, obtained by Dr. Clarke himself and originally given as October 3rd (Scot. Nat., 1913, p. 271), is now stated as October 1st. We can only suppose that the original date is the right one, as no indication of a correction is given here.'
Comment The correction was given in Scot. Nat. 34: 7.
NOT PROVEN
0). 1916 Sussex St Leonards-on-Sea, shot, 18th October.
(J. B. Nichols, British Birds 11: 45; W. Ruskin Butterfield, Hastings & East Sussex Naturalist 3: 77; Walpole-Bond, 1938).
[E. M. Nicholson & I. J. Ferguson-Lees, British Birds 55: 299-384 HR].
History J. B. Nichols (1917) in British Birds, Vol. XI. p. 45, says: 'I wish to record the occurrence of the following birds in Sussex in 1916: - Dusky Warbler (Phylloscopus fuscatus). - A bird of this species was shot at the old Brickfields at West St. Leonards, Sussex, on October 18th, 1916. It was examined in the flesh by Mr. Ruskin Butterfield. Mr. Bristow, who set it up, considered it a female by dissection, but Dr. Hartert, who examined it after being set up, thought it a male from its length of tail. This is the second British specimen, the first having been obtained at Auskerry (Orkney) on October 3rd, 1913.'
Accepted locally (Walpole-Bond 1938 (1): 366).
Comment Hastings rarity. Not acceptable.
