ID required please

Re Nick's bird, I still say Chiffy. A few years ago I was lucky enough to get a bird visit and I took a semi decent pic of it and it was only six feet from window but it was facing away from me when I took pic, I assumed it was a willow warbler and put it on forum as such, then after a month or more met GPC at Killingholme and we chatted about my WW, I asked if he would run his expert eye over the pic. So later emailed it to him and after a few days he said he thought it was Chiffy saying the colour of its legs were dark whereas the WW arent, either way both would have been a garden tick, so changed my sighting to Chiffy.

Know idea what Jim's bird is.

Russell makes some solid points about the feathering - but not about the colour of the legs. I can see why JG has gone for chiffchaff.

I can understand Nick's squeamishness, but pity he didn't retrieve it before the wasps moved in. I once found a dead woodcock on the ground outside Grimsby Central Library. I took it home and caused outrage by secretly storing it in the freezer for a few days. Then I took it to a taxidermist in Alford who was delighted. I wonder where it ended up.

Apparently, taxidermy is not as difficult as it looks. As a young man farming in the Bahamas, former prime minister Neville Chamberlain used to stuff birds he had shot when he wasn't toiling with his crops. Some 40 of his specimens (orioles included) are in the Natural History Museum's collection in Tring.

On the subject of warblers, there seem to have been plenty on the move over the weekend - I even heard individual chiffchaff and willow warbler in song in Friday morning's sunshine.

Anyone care to have a crack at ID-ing this bird in flight? I have it down as a female/juvenile blackcap, but I'm far from confident.

It flew into shot without my knowledge, so was snapped totally by accident.

Thanks guys. Yes, agree with Jim about it being trickier to ID dead birds over live ones.
I tend to think more willow than chiff chaff, though a willow is a first for my garden...but to be honest not that many chiffs either. It really was a small delicate little bird and quite lemony yellow, with a deep olive back and nape. Now, im not that squeamish, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to start opening the wings etc to have look at primary or tail feathers. I laid it amongst some of the garden pots, and the mice had a go last night, followed by a few wasps today. I suspect there won't be much left by the weekend. The cat is now sporting a rather shiny new bell and collar arrangement. He's had a couple of goldies and a dunnock over the past lockdown period, so it was about time he was curbed.
I was pretty upset with this last victim, and would be mortified to find by neighbour coming over and asking 'come and have a look at this...i've never seen anything like it before!'

Funny things is that it’s sometimes trickier to identify birds dead (and out of context) than alive when habitat, call, behaviour etc all come into play.

Isn’t there some diagnostic test re separating chiffchaffs and willow warblers- can’t remember the details but something to do with length of primaries?

I wonder if Nick has any plans for the bird.

In the meantime, perhaps someone will come up with a more exotic ID to keep the discussion bubbling along?

Fully agree with Nick about the cat. Imagine how he would have felt if it had brought in a wryneck or a hoopoe?

Flatter head shape, more prominant eyestripe, lack of eyering, more mottled ear coverts, overall more primrose colour, I will stick with Willow Warbler.

Money on Chiffchaff for me.