Large-billed Reed Warbler - BirdForum Opus

Acrocephalus orinus

Photo by Sumit
Kolkata outskirts, India, April 2007

Identification

13 cms. Unstreaked rich olive-brown upperparts, long large bill with entirely pale lower mandible and blackish upper mandible. Short whitish supercilium ending at the back of the eye, whitish crescent below the eye, short blackish line behind and before the eye. Creamy underparts tinged with buff/brown on breast, flanks and undertail coverts. Exterior tail feathers shorter than central ones. All tail feathers pointed. Short wings making the tail appear relatively long. Olive brown legs.

Distribution

Poorly known. Likely breeding period records and specimen are from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan in Central Asia. Non-breeding period records are from India and Thailand, but the main wintering area is probably still unknown.

Taxonomy

Monotypic^[1]

Subspecies macrorhynchus is usually considered invalid^[2]

This taxon is considered a subspecies of Clamorous Reed Warbler (sensu lato) by some authors^[2]

Habitat

Mountainous area between 900 and 3000 m asl, down to about 450 m at the northernmost point of collection.

Status

The Large-billed Reed Warbler is an enigmatic species and was only known to the world from one specimen collected in Himachal Pradesh in north-western India, until Philip D. Round mist-netted one in Thailand in March 2006.

This image represents the 4th ever recorded bird of this species (one skin of what was thought to be a Blyth's Reed Warbler has since been identified as Large-billed - this was from India in the 19th century).

Behaviour

Mainly unknown except for it being migratory

References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Birdforum thread discussing this species
3. Avibase
4. BF Member observations

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Large-billed Reed Warbler. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 25 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Large-billed_Reed_Warbler

External Links

Search for photos of Large-billed Reed Warbler in the gallery

More information at www.kolkatabirds.com