Appearance:

Large and bulky Sylvia-warbler, with grey upperparts, and white to cream underparts. Adult males easily distinguished at close range, by barred underparts and yellow iris. Eye darker in females and young males. Pale, or white fringes to coverts and tertials evident in most plumages, but may be faint in young birds. Tail-corners white, and under tail-coverts always spotted. Most plumage characters difficult to see at a distance, and the general bulky and long-tailed impression of the bird, together with the white tail-corners seen in flight, are more useful for ID. Sometimes resembles more a shrike than a warbler, especially in flight.

Sound:

Varied repertoire, but mostly silent when not breeding. Contact call a rolling, dry "trrrrrrrrr-r-r-t, often with ritardando ending, of 1-2 seconds length. Also a Blackcap-like "check". Song varies among individuals and location, but is generally quite similar to Garden Warbler. Often contains mimicry of Red-backed Shrike, and other species. Phrases usually quite short, with rapid alternations between sequences of squeaky, high-pitched sounds and warbling, fluty (often disyllabic) notes. This creates a slightly bouncing rhythm, different from Garden Warbler. Sometimes includes contact call in song, which makes ID easier.

Contact call/song:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Appearance:

Small and agile gull with all black wing-tips, black legs (adults) and yellow bill. Area close to wing-tips much paler than rest of wings, and often visible at surprisingly long range (more so than the black tips). Adult winter with grey neck and black half-collar. Juveniles with black zig-zag pattern to wings, resembling pattern seen in Little Gull, Ross's Gull and Sabine's Gull. Differs from those in; no dark bar on secondaries, underparts of wing white, back grey, black on primaries reaches wing-tip. Flight action different from larger gulls; fast, stiff wing-beats and elegant maneuvering even in strong winds.

Sound:

Highly vocal at breeding ground. A mewing "kitti-wake", with the pitch rising on the second drawn out syllable, and then falling. Generally silent elsewhere, except when squabbling over food.

Contact call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Sounds:Recorded by Stein Ø. Nilsen,http://www.xeno-canto.org ,CC license