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At midday on May 8th<\/sup> 2021, in the northwest of Baekryeong Island during team birding for the global Big Bird Day, Nial Moores (NM) watched a small, bright leaf warbler fly across a track and land in a nearby tree. \u00a0There the bird quickly consumed a small caterpillar before silently flying off again into the forest. During front-on views of only 2-3 seconds through binoculars the bird revealed a striking head pattern, with blackish subcoronal \/ lateral crown stripes and an ashy-grey median crown stripe and a clear eye-ring. The upperparts looked green, with a hint of a wingbar; and the underparts looked leaf-yellow.\u00a0 No white was seen in the tail as the bird flew off. Even in these very brief views, identification was immediate as a \u201cgolden-spectacled warbler\u201d, a generic name given to a group of extremely similar-looking and rather poorly-known species of warblers. \u00a0Before this encounter, no “golden-spectacled warbler” had ever been claimed in the Republic of Korea or on the Korean Peninsula. However, the sense of excitement was heavily tempered with frustration. Neither of NM’s team-mates had seen the bird; NM had failed to manage an image; and of perhaps greatest concern the bird was not heard to call. Formerly placed within the genus Seicercus<\/em>, all of these “golden-spectacled warblers”, like many other Phylloscopus<\/em>, are easiest to identify by their often diagnostic calls (see e.g., Moores & Borz\u00e9e 2020). Could this bird ever be identified to species?<\/p>\n\n\n\n NM was soon after joined by fellow Birds Koreans Subhojit Chakladar (SC) and Todd Hull (TH), and approximately two hours were spent together trying but failing to re-find the warbler. To help in our search, the songs and calls of Alstr\u00f6m\u2019s Warbler Phylloscopus soror<\/em>, perhaps the most likely of the \u201cgolden-spectacled warblers\u201d to be found in Korea, were downloaded from Xeno-Canto, and were played several times by SC. However, winds were fairly strong and it was unclear whether we heard any vocalisations in response or not. The bird was not re-sighted, so we left to bird a different part of the island – fortunate as we then found Korea\u2019s first Grey-backed Shrike<\/strong> Lanius tephronotus<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after dawn on May 9th<\/sup>, in much less windy weather, the area where the warbler had been seen was revisited. The trees were full of bird activity, including lots of Phylloscopus<\/em> warblers, with several singing Yellow-browed<\/strong> P. inornatus<\/em> and Pallas\u2019s Leaf Warblers<\/strong> P. proregulus<\/em>, a singing Radde\u2019s Warbler<\/strong> P. schwarzi<\/em>, and calling Pale-legged<\/strong> P. tenellipes<\/em> and Eastern Crowned Warblers<\/strong> P. coronatus<\/em>, in addition to several Chestnut-flanked White-eyes<\/strong> Zosterops erythopleurus<\/em>. After waiting for more than two hours, SC eventually (and miraculously!) re-located the \u201cgolden-spectacled warbler\u201d, feeding low down in some bushes, loosely in the company of a Radde\u2019s<\/strong> and, even more remarkably, a Yellow-streaked Warbler<\/strong> P. armandii<\/em> (which we likely sound-recorded the day before).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the fifteen tense minutes that followed, images were taken by both SC and TH and a recording of the bird\u2019s calls was made by NM on his phone, as the bird moved hidden, low through the vegetation. These calls were quiet, initially repeated every 1-3 seconds and then three times or more a second, and sounded flat and more or less monosyllabic. To NM\u2019s ears, the call somewhat recalled the \u201cTchep\u201d note given by Radde\u2019s Warbler, before that species usually breaks into more anxious-sounding multi-syllabic calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n