Eastern Stonechats

A selection of Eastern Stonechats from Batumi harbour. I'm not going to pretend that I know very much about these. The majority of males had much white in their tails and were clearly hemprichii. These males often appeared robust, dark and long tailed. However, there were other males that appeared slighter, lighter and shorter tailed. With so many other distractions (locustella's, acro's, etc) there just wasn't the time to study every individuals tail pattern.All the passerines below were digi-scoped.

Extensive white in tail typical of hemprichii

hemprichii - Stout bill and stocky

This 1st winter male (blackish underwing) showed less white in the tail base and was shorter tailed than the above hemprichii. I presume variegatus occurs on passage.

Two more males that showed shorter tails with less white and had slighter bills.