Ed Forum birdwatching 2008

[BillyJoe]

Can anyone idenitfy this little fella:

 

[BillyJoe]

I enhanced this one of him against the tree trunk to get an idea of the colour.

Maybe it will help in identifying him.

 

[Fiona]

His outline is exactly like a robin from that first picture. But the colour says no. Where is he?

 

[chillzero]

Looks like a Blue Tit to me.

 

[Kotatsu]

New species for the list spotted June 1 in Colorado, USA.

Riparia riparia Bank Swallow

This I will list as "Sand Martin", to accord with the European name. This is to prevent miscalculations of species numbers in the list.

Aechmophorus occidentalis Western Grebe

Is this the bird in your new avatar?

Looks like a Blue Tit to me.

No, the colouring is wrong for a blue tit. The blue tit would have, for instance, a the white cheek bordered by a black line running through the eye and around the neck. Also, the bird in the picture lack a white eyebrow, and seems to have a blue-grey, rather than green, back.It almost looks like some subspecies of Yellow wagtail, but still not; the shape, for instance, is all wrong.

I seem to recall that BillyJoe is Australian, no? I base this on the observation of a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo earlier. Supposing that is correct, I would go for this species:
(Eastern) Yellow Robin Eopsaltria australis:
Mangoverde picture (there are more)
Birds in Backyard picture --- this seems to be a very handy page for common Australian birds.

It appears to have the correct colouration, shape, and wing-length, at least. A bit whitish on the throat, but not very apparent in BillyJoe's picture. There's a faint hint of something slightly darker just across the eye, with a whiter eyebrow, with wing covers steel-blue-grey and the wing feathers darker. If it also had a yellow back, this would, I think, seal the case for Eopsaltria.

I will add some species of my own as well (I assume I can add BillyJoe's Robin). I was out riding my bike to a place 2.5 hours North of Gothenburg this Sunday, and got three new species for the list:

Gargeney Anas querquedula
Bearded Tit Panurus biarmicus
Grasshopper warbler Locustella naevia

 

[BillyJoe]

Looks like a Blue Tit to me.

Here's a Blue Tit from "Google Images":

It looks pretty close, especially if the white colouration can vary.




BTW, the combination of your user name, Cillzero, your avatar of a woman's chest, and you post about the Blue Tit is just too funny.

 

[BillyJoe]

His outline is exactly like a robin from that first picture. But the colour says no. Where is he?

It is the same bird taken from different angles.
I shot him last week-end in the Dandenong Ranges, 50km east of Melbourne, Australia.

 

[BillyJoe]

The Eastern Yellow Robin (from "Google Images") looks a close match as well:

...especially if the length of the tail can vary.

 

[BillyJoe]

Yes, I think that's it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Yellow_Robin

The Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis) is an Australasian robin of coastal and sub-coastal eastern Australia. The extent of the Eastern Yellow Robin's residence is from the extreme southeast corner of South Australia through most of Victoria and the western half of New South Wales and north as far as Cooktown. Tropical Northern Queensland birds are mainly restricted to the cool heights of the Great Dividing Range.

 

[mummymonkey]

Sunday 1st June
Rannoch

Hen harrier - Circus cyaneus
Stonechat - Saxicola rubicola
Wood warbler - Phylloscopus sibilatrix
Cuckoo - Cuculus canorus
Common sandpiper - Actitis hypoleucos
Twite - Carduelis flavirostris
Black grouse - Tetrao tetrix
Raven - Corvus Corax

 

[chillzero]

BTW, the combination of your user name, Cillzero, your avatar of a woman's chest, and you post about the Blue Tit is just too funny.

Yes, as I was typing it, I thought it was bound to spark someone's interest. (That's not just a woman, btw )

I think the bird is the robin identified, sorry for the wrong steer

 

[BillyJoe]

PS:

I found it by first googling "blue tit" (following Chillzero's suggestion), then "blue robin" (combining Chillzero's and Fiona's suggestions), and finally "yellow robin" (because of the yellow colouration of the bird's chest in the enhanced photo). The original photo was too dark to see much of anything and, ditto, with the naked eye. It was early morning on the first day of Winter.

Hey, this is fun.

regards,
BillyJoe

 

[BillyJoe]

That's not just a woman, btw

Cool.

I think the bird is the robin identified, sorry for the wrong steer

Well, as you can see, it set me off searching for the answer.
Cool again.

 

[Kestrel]

This I will list as "Sand Martin", to accord with the European name. This is to prevent miscalculations of species numbers in the list.

Good idea.

Is this the bird in your new avatar?

Yes, my new avatar is a Western Grebe. I submitted the same photo to the gallery.

 

[Kotatsu]

It looks like a very beautiful bird (Kestrel's Grebe).

I have sent the list to Eric again, along with some pictures. I note with some satisfaction and not a little smugness when viewing the list that Sweden is number two on the list, species-wise, beating the UK despite there being many more people reporting from there. If I have correctly added all my more recent sightings, this update will see Sweden eating up a substantial part of the lead the US has got as well. Hah!

A small remark:
The two first pictures I have sent to Eric are of a Reed Warbler and a Marsh Warbler, caught a few days ago. The place I catch them is boiling with Marsh Warblers and Sedge Warblers (of which I also have pictures), but it's not the right habitat for a Reed warbler, really (old reeds with bushes in the middle of a field). The individual was not a typical Reed Warbler either, but I am equally reluctant to call it a Marsh Warbler.

The case for Marsh Warbler:
- Habitat choice
- There seem to be no singing Reed Warblers in the field, but there's a lake nearby where there are several.
- The non-standard colouration

The case for Reed warbler:
- Behaviour. Marsh Warblers are generally calm in the hand, while Reed Warblers struggle, make sounds, and defecate. This one did.
- Colouration. While not very typical Reed Warbler, it is also not typical Marsh Warbler. I would say it is somewhat inbetween.
- Headshape: elongate, with a low forehead, which speaks for Reed warbler. It was markedly different from the other Marsh Warblers I have caught. Nevertheless, I had an even more mysterious warbler a few days before, which had the headshape of a Reed but the colour and behaviour of a Marsh. Only when I captured it a second time could I definitely assign it to Marsh. I think headshape may be somewhat unreliable at times.

If anyone who has experience with these birds would like to comment, I'd appreciate it. It's not a very big thing, though. Also, the Reed picture is a bit bad, as it's flapping its wings. That's the biggest clue, to me, as Marsh never seem to do that.

 

[Kotatsu]

Stonechat - Saxicola rubicola

Eric drew my attention to this one. Which species is this? Stonechat or Winchat?

 

[sphenisc]

A small remark:
The two first pictures I have sent to Eric are of a Reed Warbler and a Marsh Warbler, caught a few days ago. The place I catch them is boiling with Marsh Warblers and Sedge Warblers (of which I also have pictures), but it's not the right habitat for a Reed warbler, really (old reeds with bushes in the middle of a field). The individual was not a typical Reed Warbler either, but I am equally reluctant to call it a Marsh Warbler.

I'm not sure I understood this, did you mean you have two pictures of the same individual and you're not sure which species it is?

What were the biometrics?

Did you consider the fuscus race of reed warbler?

 

[mummymonkey]

Eric drew my attention to this one. Which species is this? Stonechat or Winchat?

European stonechat. This 2002 paper split up S. torquata.

 

[EHocking]

Thanks for the clarification. I'll have another look at the list after I've recovered from tonight's Rioja. Before dinner the count was:

Order Total :19
Family Total :82
Species Total :422
Species Total :424(inc. Subspecies)
Carrion/Hodded and Short-Eared/Hawaian Owl being the only sub-species distinctions used thus far in our lists.
Total Sightings:988

Last qualifier being Fiona's Scottish Rock Dove (about the only place we're going to get the distinction in the subscribers so far - but I'll be looking next week in eastern Europe) vs Domestic pigeon being listed as distinct species, not subspecies.

 

[Hokulele]

Yay! I finally got up to the national park and can add two more to the list (although I am still a rotten wildlife photographer, sorry EHocking). Please list these as 07 June 2008, Haleakala National Park, Maui, etc.

Hawai'ian Goose (Nene) - Branta sandvicensis
'I'iwi (no English name) - Vestiaria coccinea

I did see a bunch of repeats but didn't make note of them all.