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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

ID this small bird please (1 Viewer)

Agreed not much can be deduced from shape alone. If it was a wheatear I would expect the dark area of the primaries to extend up to the coverts which this bird doesn't show.
I would expect it too be more defined, the rocks are when enhanced.
The dark area wing is good for B redstart, smaller and less defined. I do need a new monitor so maybe I am missing something but the whites on the rocks are showing up well. I don't think it's silhouetted I think it's grey.
 
What you can see on this bird is that beyond doubt, the darkest part (apparently black) are the wings. The lightest part (apparently white) are the under tail coverts. The tail looks darker than the back. The upperparts are relatively uniform and are darker than the underparts. This is completely in keeping with a distant female Wheatear in bad light. Judgement of fine plumage features and colour is futile.

I can't rule out fem BE Wheatear (though it looks too tubby), but let's face it, Northern Wheatear is rather more likely in the first week of March.
 
Jane Turner said:
The upperparts are relatively uniform and are darker than the underparts.

Not on my monitor Jane apart form the vent area the belly upwards are as dark and darker due to shadow, which is more consistent with B Redstart.
 
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StuartReeves said:
Tav, what did this bird look like in the field?! In life it is remarkably easy to tell Wheatear from Black Redstart.
Right when i first saw this bird i thought Black redstart the bird was along way off and looked dark grey i took one pic a the bird flew of. The light was not good in that area no way was it a Robin or a Dunnock when i viewed the pic i was not sure if it was Wheatear or a Black redstart.
 
Structurally the thing in this rather exasperating photo feels like a Black Redstart to me, in particular the relatively fine bill (though of course as with almost all of the 'features' this could be a photographic artifact). However, my initial impression based on the dark primaries and slightly paler vent was Wheatear. However, as Steven Astley noted the dark of the primaries does not seem to extend on to the coverts. When you add in Tav's initial impression that this was a Black Redstart, and the fact that he apparently didn't see any white in the tail when it flew, I think I come down on the Black Redstart side of the fence.

Stuart
 
If you thought it was a Black Red Tav, I'd imagine that was what it was - if a Wheatear you would have seen a more contrasted and distinctive bird - and a whopping great white arse when it flew.

Good luck to all those searching for Wheatears this spring.
 
As much as I play with this photo and compare to Redstart/Wheatear, I keep coming back to a dumpy little Robin
 
Steven Astley said:
Thats a Wheatear not a Robin ;) . Blur the colour, I would say rub out the colour and repaint it plus adjust the shape and you get the same bird. That bird is just not the same shape or colour.

:clap: :clap:
 
Josh Jones said:
But there isn't a red breast?

There isn't a red tail, either. And I think there is red in the breast. Futile as I think this whole exercise is, I still favour Robin over the other candidates. If nothing else I don't see how you rule out Robin, which you surely must do before you entertain what are, despite the suitable habitat, still much less likely candidates.

In the attached photo there is no trickery, just tweaking of the brightness, gamma, and contrast in green, red and blue.
 

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Colin Key said:
This bird is NOT a Black Redstart. From this 'orrible photo I can only see Northern Wheatear, almost certainly a female.

Colin
Exactly. Why have so few posters checked out esmondb's boosted image in message 6. Blows black redstart, dunnock, robin and all the other silhouettes clear out of the water.
 
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