OHIO-BIRDS Archives

September 2009

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From:
jen brumfield <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
jen brumfield <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:24:19 +0000
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Greetings birders - 

Was searching rare bird photos on Surfbird's North American photo page and came across some Northern Wheatear shots from Connecticut of recent (CT's bird is an adult male): 

http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery10

Checked out CT's listserve and found this post of interest (below), by Julian Hough, regarding the CT bird, but with complete relevance to the Holmes County wheatear. 

Note, specifically: "Any brown or non-adult males in fall are either adult female, first-year male, or first-year female. All these look identical to each other under field conditions."

The Holmes County bird is most definitely not an adult male, and certainly falls under the broad category of adult female, first-year male, first-year female. So, technically, the bird cannot be considered "immature" or "subadult", as there is a possibility that the Holmes wheatear is an adult female. 


Looking forward to seeing others' photos posted to the listserve or rarebird, or other. 
best of birding
Jen


Post by Julian Hough to CT listserve: 


"In fall, adult wheatears undergo a complete molt to winter plumage where
the summer plumage is hidden beneath the new winter feathers that have
buff-tips. In fall, adult males are recognisable in that they still show the 
black mask, white supercilium, grey upperparts and peachy breast of adult summer 
plumage showing through. The Sikorsky (CT) bird is a typical example of an adult 
male in fall.

The other alternative to an adult male at this time of year would be a
first-winter male and these are indistinguishable in the field from
first-year females and first-year males (Svensson 1992).

Any "brown" or non-adult males (eg. the sikorsky bird) in fall are either 
adult female, first-year male or first-year female. All these look identical to
each other under field conditions. In spring wheatears attain breeding
plumage through wear and 2nd-cycle birds are separable from adults due to 
their worn-brown (retained juv) coverts and primaries.

To clarify the situation, there really is no "sub-adult" plumage of Northern
Wheatear - in fall they're either adult or first-year."









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