marek_walford
Well-known member
Ian Peters said:With respect Rob, I have yet to see a detailed reason why an aberrant form is a non-starter including with colleagues here at The Lodge who are a lot more experienced than I am.
The BB article addresses the possibility of the Druridge bird being an aberrant Curlew and basically says that aberrant birds are aberrant in one feature (i.e. leucistic plumage or a short bill). It argues that the chances of one bird showing several aberrant features (in the case of the Druridge bird and the Minsmere one - small, short-billed and pale) is very, very unlikely. I can believe this which is why I believe the Minsmere bird is more likely to be an obscure race of Eurasian Curlew that we know little about.