Tag: Pale-legged Leaf Warbler

Pale-legged Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus tenellipes on migration in coastal Jiangsu (32.5265, 121.1425), China, May. (Craig Brelsford)

Pale-legged Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus tenellipes breeds Changbai Mountains and Lesser Khingan Mountains in Northeast China, is common on passage in Shanghai and throughout eastern China, and winters Guangdong and Hainan. Also breeds Russian Far East. HABITAT & BEHAVIOR Breeds in thickets in river valleys and hills with dense undergrowth, to 1800 m (5,910 ft.). On migration and in winter in various types of lowland wooded habitats. Mainly in undergrowth and on lower branches of trees. Pumps tail. ID & COMPARISON Except by song and call, virtually indistinguishable from Sakhalin Leaf Warbler P. borealoides. Also similar to Arctic Warbler P. borealis and Kamchatka Leaf Warbler P. examinandus. Very pale whitish-pink to bluish-grey tarsi and pumping of tail best distinguish from Arctic and Kamchatka. Further distinguished by slightly smaller size and bill, greyer crown, and browner upperparts. Has long, creamy supercilium underlined by dark grey-brown eyestripe, yellowish-buff cheeks and ear coverts with grey-brown mottling, grey-brown crown, and olive-brown wings and upperparts, the olive-brown cast usually most pronounced on rump and uppertail coverts but also on edges of wing feathers when fresh. Usually shows one or two narrow, short, creamy-white wingbars, the bar on median coverts sometimes faint or appearing as disjointed spots. Underparts off-white with buffy wash on flanks and greyish breast sides (may appear as slight streaking). Large-billed Leaf Warbler P. magnirostris has a larger and darker bill, generally more yellow on supercilium, cheeks, and underparts, and different habits (more of a canopy species). BARE PARTS Bill shorter and stouter than Arctic. Upper mandible blackish with pink edge; lower mandible pink with black smudge not quite reaching tip. VOICE Song a cricket-like trill lasting 2 seconds, delivered repeatedly with pauses of several seconds in between. Trill of Lanceolated Warbler not preceded by grace note. Distinctive call a high-pitched, metallic tink, 1 kHz higher in frequency than Sakhalin. — Craig Brelsford

SOUND-RECORDINGS

Pale-legged Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus tenellipes, song, Xidaquan National Forest (45.720702, 130.280567), Heilongjiang, China, elev. 610 m (2,000 ft.), June, by Craig Brelsford (1:59, 20 MB)

Pale-legged Leaf Warbler P. tenellipes, trill, Zhongshan Park (31.224447, 121.413963), Shanghai, May, by Craig Brelsford (0:03; 922 KB)

Pale-legged Leaf Warbler P. tenellipes, tink, Zhongshan Park (31.224447, 121.413963), Shanghai, May, by Craig Brelsford (0:15; 1.4 MB)

PALE-LEGGED LEAF WARBLER ON SHANGHAIBIRDING.COM

shanghaibirding.com is the world’s best website for information on Pale-legged Leaf Warbler. Read our posts on Pale-legged Leaf Warbler and its sister species, Sakhalin Leaf Warbler:

• Hear sound-recordings of the calls of Pale-legged Leaf Warbler and Sakhalin Leaf Warbler and view the spectrograms: Separating Pale-legged & Sakhalin Leaf Warbler on Call

• Hear the calls of southward-migrating Pale-legged Leaf Warbler and Sakhalin Leaf Warbler recorded on the same day at Cape Nanhui, Shanghai: Pale-Sak Calls: An Addendum

• Hear song fragments of northward-migrating Pale-legged Leaf Warbler and Sakhalin Leaf Warbler recorded on the same day at Zhongshan Park, Shanghai: Sakhalin & Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, Singing Together

• Pale-legged Leaf Warbler and the other major species of leaf warbler in Shanghai

Scholarly work mentioning Pale-legged Leaf Warbler hosted on shanghaibirding.com:

• Addition of Kamchatka Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus examinandus and Sakhalin Leaf Warbler P. borealoides to Thailand’s Avifauna

THE LEAF WARBLERS OF CHINA

shanghaibirding.com has research on most members of Phylloscopus in China. Click any link:

Wood Warbler Phylloscopus sibilatrix
Buff-barred Warbler P. pulcher
Ashy-throated Warbler P. maculipennis
Hume’s Leaf Warbler P. humei
Yellow-browed Warbler P. inornatus
Chinese Leaf Warbler P. yunnanensis
Lemon-rumped Warbler P. chloronotus
Sichuan Leaf Warbler P. forresti
Gansu Leaf Warbler P. kansuensis
Pallas’s Leaf Warbler P. proregulus
Yellow-streaked Warbler P. armandii
Radde’s Warbler P. schwarzi
Sulphur-bellied Warbler P. griseolus
Tickell’s Leaf Warbler P. affinis
Smoky Warbler P. fuligiventer
Dusky Warbler P. fuscatus
Buff-throated Warbler P. subaffinis
Willow Warbler P. trochilus
Mountain Chiffchaff P. sindianus
Common Chiffchaff P. collybita
Eastern Crowned Warbler P. coronatus
Ijima’s Leaf Warbler P. ijimae
White-spectacled Warbler P. intermedius
Grey-cheeked Warbler P. poliogenys
Green-crowned Warbler P. burkii
Grey-crowned Warbler P. tephrocephalus
Whistler’s Warbler P. whistleri
Bianchi’s Warbler P. valentini
Alström’s Warbler P. soror
Martens’s Warbler P. omeiensis
Two-barred Warbler P. plumbeitarsus
Greenish Warbler P. trochiloides
Emei Leaf Warbler P. emeiensis
Large-billed Leaf Warbler P. magnirostris
Sakhalin Leaf Warbler P. borealoides
Pale-legged Leaf Warbler P. tenellipes
Japanese Leaf Warbler P. xanthodryas
Kamchatka Leaf Warbler P. examinandus
Arctic Warbler P. borealis
Chestnut-crowned Warbler P. castaniceps
Limestone Leaf Warbler P. calciatilis
Sulphur-breasted Warbler P. ricketti
Yellow-vented Warbler P. cantator
Blyth’s Leaf Warbler P. reguloides
Claudia’s Leaf Warbler P. claudiae
Hartert’s Leaf Warbler P. goodsoni
Kloss’s Leaf Warbler P. ogilviegranti
Hainan Leaf Warbler P. hainanus
Davison’s Leaf Warbler P. davisoni
Grey-hooded Warbler P. xanthoschistos

RESOURCES ON LEAF WARBLERS

Use Per Alström’s 40-page presentation on the leaf warblers of China. The document is available in PDF and jpeg:

Presentation on the Identification of Leaf Warblers in China, by Per Alström (PDF version)

Presentation on the Identification of Leaf Warblers in China, by Per Alström (zip folder containing jpegs that can be synced like photos to one’s smartphone)

For more mentions of Pale-legged Leaf Warbler on shanghaibirding.com, scroll through the posts below. Write us: info@shanghaibirding.com