Four Yellow-browed Warblers (Phylloscopus inornatus) have been recorded so far this season:
– 1 bird found at Melilla on 15 October by Francisco José Pérez Ruiz and Francisco Arias Nicolás.
– 1 bird found at Missour, Moyenne Moulouya on 22 October by Geoffrey Monchaux (Geoffrey said the homologation form already sent to the MRBC, Merci!)
– 1 bird found at Ben Ahmed, Settat on 5 November by Abdsamad Ennoury.
– 1 bird found near Tagdilt Track, Boumalne n’Dades on 1 December by Kris Webb. The late date suggests that this bird is probably wintering (in Morocco, the species is mainly encoutred in autumn).
Fourteen records of this species have been accepted by the MRBC: 13 already published (the probable wintering bird at Rabat in 2015 being the last one) and the 14th (found at Cap Beddouza, Safi) is also accepted by the MRBC and will appear in its next report.
North African specialties
Apart from the nice surprise to find a rare Siberian bird in the middle of a stony desert in Morocco, Kris Webb took some nice photographs of a number of North African endemic birds as well. Here we show a few of them, starting with this beautiful Maghreb Wheatear which some authorities suggest it should be split from Eastern Mourning Wheatear (Oenanthe lugens). It should be noted that it’s already split by some like the Dutch Birding Association and Collins Bird Guide.
More photos of these and other birds can be found at Kris’s blog ‘Scilly Spider’ (search Morocco or the English names of the birds).