I have yet to scrutinise my video footage of this bird, but, as stills are generally more useful for i.d.purposes, I was hoping to see more photos being hawked around. Having seen the bird in question, I can confirm that Barry's photo above is reasonably accurate at portraying how pale this bird was. Ideally, we could do with some photos showing the rump and undertail coverts, the bird in profile, and a two-shot of the bird alongside a regular lesser redpoll for comparison. Unfortunately, I have no recent literature published since the sub-species were re-classified as distinct species, so my i.d. info maybe somewhat out of date. I don't know how significant the orange, rather than dark red, cap is but the only illustration showing this feature in Collins is a female first winter Arctic Redpoll...........My money is on Mealy though.
I've got to admit, if I'd seen this bird for 3/4 seconds I would definitely have followed through for all round views on possible Mealy. Good photograph.
Hello - I am the one who took the picture. This is exactly as it was seen, no changes to colour or brightness have been made - I never tweak colour (it's just not right!) For the record this bird was also clearly lighter from the side too, & really stood out. Unfortunately was only around for a few seconds & I'm lucky I managed to get this shot. & amazingly my BOG login would appear to work here too?
Hello again. (I had a lightbulb! moment) So I sent this picture into Birdguides with a cheating tag of "Redpoll". They have put it up & Identified the Bird as Mealy. I honestly have trouble with ID of Redpoll & if any of you guys know a good web link to a site with explaination of differences I, & probably most of us would really appreciate the reading! So hopefully this should bring closure to the ID confusion, & next time I'm there this chap will be very high on my Photograph list! Now if I could just work out a common from the others? lol
Hi, your BOG login is a unique Google account and providing a specific Blog owner has invited you to post, you can use it for as many blogs as you wish to.
10 comments:
Hard to say colour wise as the photo is pale, just does,nt look butch enough to me for Mealy but thats only my opinion. Hard without a comparison.
Thanks for the post Chris. I will no doubt catch up with Barry.
Also Brian, thanks for your thoughts. As you say its hard without a comparison in shot.
I have yet to scrutinise my video footage of this bird, but, as stills are generally more useful for i.d.purposes, I was hoping to see more photos being hawked around. Having seen the bird in question, I can confirm that Barry's photo above is reasonably accurate at portraying how pale this bird was. Ideally, we could do with some photos showing the rump and undertail coverts, the bird in profile, and a two-shot of the bird alongside a regular lesser redpoll for comparison. Unfortunately, I have no recent literature published since the sub-species were re-classified as distinct species, so my i.d. info maybe somewhat out of date. I don't know how significant the orange, rather than dark red, cap is but the only illustration showing this feature in Collins is a female first winter Arctic Redpoll...........My money is on Mealy though.
The Mealy I saw last year had an overall pale grey appearance. The colour on this bird (what we can see of it) looks too brown for me.
I've got to admit, if I'd seen this bird for 3/4 seconds I would definitely have followed through for all round views on possible Mealy. Good photograph.
Hello - I am the one who took the picture. This is exactly as it was seen, no changes to colour or brightness have been made - I never tweak colour (it's just not right!)
For the record this bird was also clearly lighter from the side too, & really stood out. Unfortunately was only around for a few seconds & I'm lucky I managed to get this shot.
& amazingly my BOG login would appear to work here too?
Hi Barry
If you want my details then email me. If you get more pictures then don't hesitate to post them or email them to me. CromwellBottom@gmail.com
Hello again. (I had a lightbulb! moment) So I sent this picture into Birdguides with a cheating tag of "Redpoll". They have put it up & Identified the Bird as Mealy. I honestly have trouble with ID of Redpoll & if any of you guys know a good web link to a site with explaination of differences I, & probably most of us would really appreciate the reading!
So hopefully this should bring closure to the ID confusion, & next time I'm there this chap will be very high on my Photograph list!
Now if I could just work out a common from the others? lol
Hi Barry
Try this PDF: http://www.uk400clubonline.co.uk/File-Store/The-Separation-Of-Lesser-&-Mealy-Redpolls.pdf
Hi, your BOG login is a unique Google account and providing a specific Blog owner has invited you to post, you can use it for as many blogs as you wish to.
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