Siberian Lesser Whitethroat - Sylvia althaea blythi
On 3 December 2013 Jacob Bosma (who also discovered the Western Black-throated Wheatear and the Pine Grosbeaks in 2004) discovered a Lesser Whitethroat at the Eemshaven Gr. As wintering Lesser Whitethroats could be Siberian Whitethroats, the bird was trapped on 10 January 2014 and DNA-samples were taken. I visited the bird on Christmas Day on 25 December 2013.
25 December 2013, Eemshaven Gr; © Jan van der Laan.
25 December 2013, Eemshaven Gr; © Jan van der Laan.
The bird stayed till 14 January 2014. The result of the mtDNA analyses showed the bird was a blythi and constituted the 6th record for the Netherlands for this taxon. The Dutch Committee for Systematics decided in 2013 to split the Lesser Whitethroat-complex into two seperate species, with the nominate Lesser Whitethroat Sylvia curruca at one site and at the other site the Eastern forms with the polytypic Siberian Whitethroat Sylvia althaea consisting of e.g. blythi, halimodendra and margelanica. Previous records of blythi were in 2008, 2012 and four in 2013.
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