• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

desmarestii race Shag? Cornwall (1 Viewer)

Samuel Perfect

Well-known member
Would I be pushing my luck to say this Shag shows features of the race desmarestii? Photographed 21/11/13 at Pennance Point, Cornwall.
 

Attachments

  • November 2013 007.JPG
    November 2013 007.JPG
    373 KB · Views: 137
  • November 2013 008.jpg
    November 2013 008.jpg
    217.7 KB · Views: 41
  • November 2013 010.JPG
    November 2013 010.JPG
    403.2 KB · Views: 57
  • November 2013 011.jpg
    November 2013 011.jpg
    218.6 KB · Views: 76
  • November 2013 012.jpg
    November 2013 012.jpg
    230.7 KB · Views: 45
I read somewhere that aristotelis can look just as bleeched as desmarestii, but only in extreme cases. Be interesting to know if you can separate them for sure and what the status of this race in Britain is.

Look forward to hearing what people think.

Kieran
 
Another for leucistic nominate. The dark belly rules out desmarestii and no taxa has a whitish nape. I'm not sure if a genuine desmarestii has been recorded in the UK.

Chris
 
Another for leucistic nominate. The dark belly rules out desmarestii and no taxa has a whitish nape. I'm not sure if a genuine desmarestii has been recorded in the UK.

Chris

It hasn't I'm pretty sure, though better examples have been described. I agree with you and Ads that this looks like a leucistic aristotelis
 
Thanks all for the feedback.

According to the link Locostella provided "all [desmarestii] had dark thighs which contrasted
with the pale underparts. While this may be a constant feature on
desmarestii, juveniles of the nominate race can also be very pale below". The same dark/pale contrast does not exist in my second pic so I understand why leucism appears a good option.

The extent of yellow on the bill and bright tarsus (strongly tinged pink) were additional features that stood out (the pic in post 2 seems to just about show the latter feature).

Apparently, bill size is longer in desmarestii although I wasn't able to compare it to nominate Shags as this was the only bird in the area (maybe it's possible to determine bill length relative to head size?)

My concern with it being leucistic or bleached is that the pale areas seem to fit the same areas of the body that would also appear pale in the med race (almost too conventionally to be possible through pure chance).
 
Warning! This thread is more than 10 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top