Two-barred Warbler Phylloscopus plumbeitarsus Scientific name definitions

11·5–12 cm; 9 g. A medium-sized dark green leaf-warbler with long supercilia , long dark eyestripe and prominent wingbars . Has yellowish-white supercilium , dark olive-green crown and upperparts (browner in worn plumage); whitish tips of median and greater upperwing-coverts forming two clear wingbars (median-covert bar can be faint or absent when plumage worn); flight-feathers dark brown, finely edged bright green, primaries with narrow whitish tips; tail brown with olive-green edges; whitish below, washed with grey on throat, breast and flanks ; iris dark brown; upper mandible brown, lower mandible yellow to pinkish; legs variably dull reddish-brown to grey-brown or bluish-grey. Distinguished from very similar P. trochiloides mainly by having slightly darker green upperparts, very little or no yellow on underparts, longer and broader bar on greater coverts, more prominent bar on median coverts, but perhaps not reliably separated when plumage worn; from P. inornatus by larger size, pale lower mandible, longer tail, lack of pale tips on tertials. Sexes alike. Juvenile is similar to adult but slightly browner on upperparts, with supercilium yellowish-buff, wingbars yellowish, underparts greyish-white.

EC & E Siberia from lower R Tunguska and upper R Yenisey E to SE Russian Far East and N Sakhalin, S to NE Mongolia, NE China and N Korea; non-breeding S China (Yunnan E to SW Guangdong and Hainan), Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam (C & S Annam).

Migratory; spends non-breeding season in SE Asia. Juveniles descend to lower altitudes before autumn departure. Departs from breeding area in Aug, with passage through NC China in second half of that month and throughout China Sept to mid-Oct (early Oct in NE China); first immigrants in S Myanmar from mid-Sept. Return movement N from early Apr; main passage through SE China early May, in C & NE China in mid-May and in SE Russia (Amurland) late May; reaches N limits of range in mid-Jun. Rare vagrant in Europe (Britain, Netherlands, Sweden ) and in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore.

Details of diet almost unknown; small insects recorded. Forages alone, in pairs or, in non-breeding season, in small mixed parties. Arboreal; actively forages in middle levels of trees.

Call a dry and rather flat disyllabic “tissheep”, or “chi-ree-wee”. Song, from arrival in breeding area to early Aug, a rapid series of whistles, warbles and chatters, similar to that of P. trochiloides but slightly faster and with more slurred and jumbled notes.

Poorly known. Season May to early Aug; fledglings end Jun and juveniles early Aug, but also nestlings being fed by adults in mid-Aug. Territorial. Nest ball-shaped, made from moss, grass stems, leaves and hair, placed on ground, on slope or bank. Clutch 5–6 eggs, occasionally 7; no information on incubation and fledging periods.