We had a large, aggressive redpoll at our feeders this weekend that I found difficult to identify to species. The bird had light flank streaking, white undertail coverts, and a white/pink rump that all looked good for a hoary redpoll. But, the brown color on the back and the extensive rosy breast and cheeks were a much better fit for a common redpoll. The bird lacked that "frosty" appearance and light pink breast of a classic male hoary. The bill was also quite large, which doesn't fit many hoary redpoll descriptions. Five photos can be seen here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/101615744@N02/
I reached out to a few friends who gave me their sage advice. I think that the bird feels more like a pale male common redpoll. But maybe my perception of hoary redpolls is too narrow? I'm also fine with giving it the WNK designation (we'll never know). I welcome your thoughts off-list. I'd also like to invite those knowledgable with the intricacies of redpoll ID to offer their guidance to the group.
Cheers,
Chris Bartlett
Eastport
Maine birds mailing list
maine-birds@googlegroups.com
http://groups.google.com/group/maine-birds
https://sites.google.com/site/birding207
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maine birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to maine-birds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
0 comments:
Post a Comment