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Large-Billed Leaf Warbler | Phylloscopus magnirostris
Diksnavelboszanger | Mosquitero picudo
The Large-billed Leaf Warbler is a large, dark leaf warbler of mountain streams in the Himalayas and western China, which winters in southern India and Sri Lanka. In the region it is an exceptional vagrant: the first for Arabia was found in October 2014 in a park in Dubai.
Voice
The call is a clear, rising, two-note whistle, dir-tee or yaw-wee, the best feature. The song is a fast, descending series of five to seven clear notes, roughly tee-tee-tee-tu-tu, audible above the noise of mountain streams. The Dubai bird was not heard.
Recording: Junning Wang — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
12–13 cm. Large for a leaf warbler, about the size of a Wood Warbler, with a long, heavy, dark bill with a pale lower mandible. Upperparts dark olive-green to grey-green, underparts off-white with a greyish or yellowish wash on breast and flanks. A long, clear, yellowish-white supercilium broadening at the rear, a broad blackish eye-stripe and a dark, mottled cheek give a contrasting head pattern. One or two narrow, pale wing-bars on the greater coverts, often worn. Legs grey-brown.
Confusion species
Green Warbler (Phylloscopus nitidus) is smaller and slighter, brighter green and yellow, with a shorter, finer bill; it forages restlessly high in the canopy, whereas Large-billed Leaf Warbler moves more deliberately and lower in the branches. Greenish Warbler (Phylloscopus trochiloides) is smaller, with a finer bill and a less dark eye-stripe. A safe identification requires attention to the primary pattern and preferably the call.
Habitat
In the region in city parks with trees and shrubs. Breeds in montane forest along fast-flowing streams and winters in dense, moist forest, often near water.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the habitats of North Africa and the Middle East.
Range and movements
One accepted record in the United Arab Emirates: a bird on 11–12 October 2014 in Al Mamzar Park in Dubai, the first for Arabia. In September 2022 one was reported from a park in Abu Dhabi. Not recorded elsewhere in the region. Breeds in the Himalayas from northern Pakistan to Bhutan and in western and central China, and winters in southern India and Sri Lanka.
How and when to look
A rarity to look out for only at the migration peaks, in September and October, in the green parks of Dubai or Abu Dhabi: a strikingly large leaf warbler with a heavy bill and a dark eye-stripe.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened. In the region an exceptional vagrant.
Scientific name
Phylloscopus magnirostris | Blyth, 1843
Blyth described the species in 1843 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Phylloscopus was introduced in 1826 by Boie. Phylloscopus is Greek, from phullon 'leaf' and skopos 'seeker', from skopeō 'to watch': the bird that searches the foliage. magnirostris is Latin for 'large-billed', from magnus 'large' and rostrum 'bill'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India.