Bird Photography · The Indian List
Leaf Warblers
2 of 40 species photographed
Forty species, nearly all of them small, olive-green or yellowish birds that look frustratingly alike at a glance and spend their time high in foliage, rarely sitting still. This is the family where song and call carry more identification weight than plumage — many leaf warblers are safely told apart only by voice, and several pairs of species are close to inseparable on looks alone without a clean view of wingbars, crown stripes, and rump colour all at once.
Wing pattern is the first thing worth checking: how many wingbars, whether the rump shows a contrasting patch, whether there is a pale crown stripe bordered by darker lateral stripes. None of these are foolproof individually, but taken together with range and elevation they usually narrow a bird down to two or three candidates rather than forty.
40Species in India
2Photographed
High in foliage, rarely stillWhere and how they feed
Voice over plumageHow to tell them apart
Wingbars, crown stripes, rump patchWhat to check first
The species
Ashy-throated Warbler
Phylloscopus maculipennis1 frame- Status
- Resident, with altitudinal movement — descends lower in winter
- Range
- The Himalaya from Himachal Pradesh east through Arunachal Pradesh
- Habitat
- Mid to high elevation forest, often in mixed-species flocks
- IUCN
- Least Concern
A small, active warbler with a brown-and-white striped crown, a grey-washed throat and face against an otherwise olive-green body, and a single pale wingbar. Told from the many similar Phylloscopus warblers mainly by the combination of the striped crown and the ashy throat wash rather than any one field mark alone.
FM0269
Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary, West Kameng, Arunachal PradeshPerched on a mossy branch, side-on in warm morning light.
Buff-barred Warbler
Not yet foundYellow-browed Warbler
Not yet foundHume's Warbler
Not yet foundBrooks's Leaf Warbler
Not yet foundChinese Leaf Warbler
Not yet foundPallas's Leaf Warbler
Not yet foundLemon-rumped Warbler
Not yet foundSichuan Leaf Warbler
Not yet foundTytler's Leaf Warbler
Yet to uploadSulphur-bellied Warbler
Yet to uploadTickell's Leaf Warbler
Not yet foundDusky Warbler
Not yet foundSmoky Warbler
Not yet foundPlain Leaf Warbler
Not yet foundBuff-throated Warbler
Not yet foundWillow Warbler
Not yet foundMountain Chiffchaff
Not yet foundCommon Chiffchaff
Not yet foundEastern Crowned Warbler
Not yet foundWhite-spectacled Warbler
Not yet foundGray-cheeked Warbler
Seicercus poliogenys2 frames- Status
- Resident, with some altitudinal movement
- Range
- The Himalaya from Himachal Pradesh east through Arunachal Pradesh, mid to high elevation
- Habitat
- Mid-storey and canopy of moist forest, often in mixed-species foraging flocks
- IUCN
- Least Concern
A slate-grey head and face bordered below by a bold white eye-ring, with a bright yellow-olive body and a small pale wingbar. The complete white eye-ring is the clearest field mark against similar grey-hooded warblers in the region — the head reads uniformly grey rather than showing the darker eye-stripe and crown-stripe pattern of some relatives.
FM0273
Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve (SBVCR), West Kameng, Arunachal PradeshPerched among moss-covered stems, head raised toward the light.
Green-crowned Warbler
Not yet foundGray-crowned Warbler
Not yet foundWhistler's Warbler
Not yet foundBianchi's Warbler
Not yet foundGreen Warbler
Yet to uploadGreenish Warbler
Yet to uploadTwo-barred Warbler
Not yet foundLarge-billed Leaf Warbler
Yet to uploadPale-legged Leaf Warbler
Not yet foundSakhalin Leaf Warbler
Not yet foundArctic Warbler
Not yet foundChestnut-crowned Warbler
Not yet foundYellow-vented Warbler
Not yet foundWestern Crowned Warbler
Yet to uploadBlyth's Leaf Warbler
Not yet foundClaudia's Leaf Warbler
Not yet foundGray-hooded Warbler
Not yet foundPhotographs by Fareed Mohmed