Subalpine Warbler (Curruca cantillans)
Leach's Storm Petrel (Hydrobates leucorhous)
Medium small Sylvia with short tail, slender body and steep forehead. Bill slim,fairly short and pointed. Male with rufous breast and conspicuous, broad, white moustache stripes. Upperparts lead grey. Female with slightly more brownish upperparts and buff white below. Immature birds has greyish brown upperparts, and are prone to confusion with Spectacled Warbler due to broad, brown fringes of tertials. The colour is however less rufous, and the dark centre ends in a rounded, not pointed tip. Pale legs in all sexes and ages, but some variation. Eye-ring colour variable, but generally red in male and very pale in female and immature (rules out other Sylvia except Tristram and Sardinian). Colour of upperparts more uniform than in confusion species in both male and female. May cock tail, but does not keep it raised like Dartford Warbler. Taxonomy much discussed. Western Italian population now accepted as a separate species (Moltoni's Warbler, S. subalpina), while S. c. inornata has species status in Svensson, but not in Clements (2018) .
Sound:Alarm call a short, hard "tuk", but softer and fainter than Blackcap and Sardinian W. Song a rapid, vivid stream of squeaks and clearer notes, with timbre similar to Whitethroat. May be confused with Sardinian W., but lacks that species interwoven hard and rolling contact call.
Alarm, song:
Distribution:
Xeno-canto: map
Ecology:Birdlife ecology
Links:
Observation.org Latest observations
Image search Flickr NB! May give other species
CCCC-photo:adrien2008, Licence,Link.
Forked and fairly long tail. Clearly bigger than Storm Petrel, with more slender appearance and longer wings. Generally not as black, and shows brownish tone to plumage. The white rump patch is oval, has a weak grey center stripe, and does not reach as far down on the sides as in Storm Petrel. Light grey upper greater coverts form a wing-band. Underside of wings all dark. Flight pattern variable, with frequent changes in direction and speed. Sometimes glides like a shearwater but at other times shows surprisingly deep wing-beats. Does not patter surface, but will rest on water. Visits breeding ground only at night, and is usually only seen after storms.
Sound:Only calls at breeding ground. A series of accentuated cooing, interrupted by a squeaky "inbreath" and a loud, absurd, fanfare-like "kaaa-ka-ka-kaaa-ka".
Calls:
Distribution:
Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)
Ecology:Birdlife ecology
Links:
Observation.org Latest observations
Image search Flickr NB! May give other species
CC