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Wheatear's from UAE. (1 Viewer)

peterarras

peterarras

Well-known member
Hi,
here are 2 Wheatear's, are they from the same species
and from which species? The pictures are from 8. and 12. March 2012,
near Al Ain, UAE.
Thanks for help in advance.
Cheers
Peter.
 

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Lou
Just out of interest having just returned from Cyprus. How do you rule out male Cyprus Wheatear for the first 2' is it on range alone. I saw both in Cyprus for the first time and could only do the Pieds on the size of the rump patch?
 
RE Birder Pied Wheatear is super rare in Cyprus (I think there's two accepted records). As you say identifying the two is very, very tough. Their voice is the best way of identifying the two.
 
SJC said:
RE Birder Pied Wheatear is super rare in Cyprus (I think there's two accepted records). As you say identifying the two is very, very tough. Their voice is the best way of identifying the two.
Click to expand...

I've got some photos which I'll post later of a bird I thought was a pied male, maybe I got it wrong, there were 2 of us that saw
Cheers for the info!
 
59f239ed-5df3-3bfd.jpg


59f239ed-5e09-2023.jpg


59f239ed-5e1a-c045.jpg


There was a female bird which I believed to be pied female and one of these birds was displaying to it.

Just for the record I have no intention of 'claiming' this bird, that kind of thing doesnt interest me, i was there on work. but we saw a few Cyprus Wheatears, this after looking at the photos seem to show a bit more extensive white on the rump.

I also have some video of the bird
 
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Not sure you can rule out Cyprus from those shots. Did you get a photo of the female, those are pretty different and probably the best way to tell them apart (other than song of course)
 
SJC said:
Not sure you can rule out Cyprus from those shots. Did you get a photo of the female, those are pretty different and probably the best way to tell them apart (other than song of course)
Click to expand...

When we initially saw the female bird I first thought it was a spot fly due to the plainness of it, the male then began displaying towards it. But the female didn't hang around so no photos. I didn't realise they were so rare on Cyprus so that was where my initial confidence that we had seen them. Checking the books in the hotel later we were pretty confident that we had seen the female because they appear so different. They will be the ones that got away though! The location was Cape Greco.
 
I am far from an expert on these wheatears, but I looked in the second edition Collins according to which Pied can look intermediate between the images shown in the blog Brian linked to?

And secondly, can the female pied completely hide white in the tail? Please look at the image currently showing as a female in our Opus page: http://birdforum.net/opus/Pied_Wheatear

thanks
Niels
 
njlarsen said:
I am far from an expert on these wheatears, but I looked in the second edition Collins according to which Pied can look intermediate between the images shown in the blog Brian linked to?

And secondly, can the female pied completely hide white in the tail? Please look at the image currently showing as a female in our Opus page: http://birdforum.net/opus/Pied_Wheatear

thanks
Niels
Click to expand...

Niels,

Yes the female is a Pied Wheatear. Sometimes you cannot see the white in the tail when it is closed. This goes for most Wheatear sp.

Cheers,
 
njlarsen said:
I am far from an expert on these wheatears, but I looked in the second edition Collins according to which Pied can look intermediate between the images shown in the blog Brian linked to?

thanks
Niels
Click to expand...

Niels

The tail band of Pied can be variable, but in my experience the large amount of black is less common and very often broken.

So a 'pied' wheatear on Cyprus with a broad black tail band and in my opinion not a huge amount of white on the rump (see - http://img.tapatalk.com/59f239ed-5e09-2023.jpg ) is most likely to be Cyprus. Unless primary extension/numbering is seen it is clutching at straws somewhat to claim a male Pied on Cyprus.

Brian S
 
Brian J Small said:
Niels

The tail band of Pied can be variable, but in my experience the large amount of black is less common and very often broken.

So a 'pied' wheatear on Cyprus with a broad black tail band and in my opinion not a huge amount of white on the rump (see - http://img.tapatalk.com/59f239ed-5e09-2023.jpg ) is most likely to be Cyprus. Unless primary extension/numbering is seen it is clutching at straws somewhat to claim a male Pied on Cyprus.

Brian S
Click to expand...

Brian
Just to clarify, I wasn't clutching at straws, just a mistake based on my lack of experience abroad. As I said before it is not my style to 'claim' birds. Not really into that. I was with a few more experienced birders than me and they all thought this bird was worth a closer look. As for the female type bird I saw, who knows. But thanks for clarifying some ID points. For a look at my exploits in Cyprus, please see the link below. By the way, your illustrations in the Reed and Bush Warblers book are excellent as is the complete package.
Cheers

http://devonwildlifecrime.blogspot.co.uk/
 
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RE Birder said:
Brian
Just to clarify, I wasn't clutching at straws, just a mistake based on my lack of experience abroad. As I said before it is not my style to 'claim' birds. Not really into that. I was with a few more experienced birders than me and they all thought this bird was worth a closer look. As for the female type bird I saw, who knows. But thanks for clarifying some ID points. For a look at my exploits in Cyprus, please see the link below. By the way, your illustrations in the Reed and Bush Warblers book are excellent as is the complete package.
Cheers

http://devonwildlifecrime.blogspot.co.uk/
Click to expand...

Sorry, my post came over as critical, it was not meant to be. As the finder of one of the Pied Wheatears on Cyprus, I reckon a female is much more 'doable' as they are clearly differentiated from fm Cyprus, the only problem is separating them from some fm Eastern Black-eareds.

Thanks for the comments re Reed and Bush Warblers.

Brian S
 
i think even females cause problems. many female "pieds" i see in romania have a melanoleuca-like warm hue to underparts and a pretty pale breast - hybrids?
2cy male pieds can have a broader tail band according to panov in "wheatears".
as for the subject males from UAE of course i wouldn't like to separate them definitely from cyprus w. - but i think the probability strongly is in favour of pieds.
 
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