Female Seebohm's wheatear (1 Viewer)

Hello,

I wonder if anybody could help me with information regarding field ID of female Seebohm's wheatear please.

I have searched the web for images, but only been able to locate a handful of images of female Seebohm's wheatear. Most of the images show thick dark lores, a distinct super, and a brown capped appearance, making the females "doable" if a little tricky.

I was just wondering if those with field experience of female Seebohm's could shed some light on what to look out for please, any additional images would be fantastic.

All the best.

Apart from the thick, black lores running into a short moustachal stripe, some have a dusky throat and the upperparts are a shade darker grey than those of male Northern. The black underwing coverts and pale underside of the remiges and noticeably narrow black tail tip, on both sexes, are pretty obvious in flight.

Chris

Here is one of my photos of female Seebohm's, taken at Ifrane, Morrocco, in April 2009:
https://plus.google.com/photos/1156...09664314304625/5331710479752663170?banner=pwa

Thank you for the replies (and photo) Chris and Smiths.

For some reason I can't open Peter's photo, but thought I would add this link to a mystery wheatear in Morocco in March - http://braddersbirding.blogspot.com/2013/03/morocco-mystery-wheatear.html

Not sure I agree with replies....

Brian

Thanks for that Brian, could I ask your thoughts please?

Daniel

To be honest it could well be Seebohm's but just looks a bit odd. For fm Seebohm's some images here -

http://www.birdimage.nl/2010/05/ seebohms-tapuit-seebohms-wheatear/

Am in the Atlas now and hope to see Seebohm's tomorrow.

Brian

Brian J Small said:

For some reason I can't open Peter's photo, but thought I would add this link to a mystery wheatear in Morocco in March - http://braddersbirding.blogspot.com/2013/03/morocco-mystery-wheatear.html

Not sure I agree with replies....

Brian

Click to expand...

Thanks for picking this up, Brian: I thought it was an interesting bird. I was disappointed with the number of replies - and I also disagree with the ID of Seebohm's suggested in the two that I did get (although that's what I initially called the bird as in the field!)

However, I'm 99% certain it's a female Western Mourning (Maghreb) Wheatear - not least because we saw a pair of these a couple of days later, and got much better views. I have more photos of these to post in due course.

But just based on what you can see in the three pics of this bird - the mantle is a weird somewhat sandy grey (somewhere between Desert and Northern Wheatear, not recalling the latter as I'd expect Seebohm's to do), the primaries show pale bases (pro Mourning), and the white rump extends up onto the lower back (pro Mourning, contra Seebohm's).

I'd never really considered Seebohm's and Mourning as confusion species, though, so it's a bit weird! Nor was I expecting to see Mourning out near Auberge Yasmina (Erfoud / Merzouga area).

Would be interested to hear what you, or others, think.

cheers,

I think the female type Seebohm's Brian posted are actually 1st summer males ( at least that's what I was calling them last time I saw them ). The typical adult males were accompanied by birds from which I took my description. I've never caught up with Maghreb but, looking in Collins, the mystery bird seems to fit their description.

Chris

Found this nice female seebohmi from Oukaïmeden in the first click in the IBC website (you can check others on the map).

Here is included a partial view (may be not very useful) of a female (escape registration to view/download the PDF):

Förschler, M. I., Metzger, B., Maggini, I., Neumann, R., & Bairlein, F. (2008). Seebohm’s Wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe seebohmi in West Africa. Bull ABC. 15: 242-244.