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Pine Bunting, Shropshire England ? (1 Viewer)

Ravenwing

Well-known member
I'm struggling a bit, is this a picture of the Pine Bunting currently at Venus Pools, Staffordshire ? The white edges to the primaries look good to me ....
thanks
 

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To me the bird on the picture does look like a Corn Bunting. Grey all over and I can't see white in tail...
 
No, there is no rufous rump that is shown by Pine Bunting for starters... To me thats a Corn Bunting, also note the shape of the dark centers of the tertials.
 
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The bird in question appears to have a contrasty pale central crown stripe, a modest relatively speaking all grey bill, and contrasting lines to the mantle....strange Corn Bunting?

Cheers
 
The bird in question appears to have a contrasty pale central crown stripe, a modest relatively speaking all grey bill, and contrasting lines to the mantle....strange Corn Bunting?

Cheers

The bird in question is obviously so much bigger than the Yellowhammer in the near background. Surely Corn Bunting.

Cheers.
 
Part of the problem of this twitch is that just like the Wadbrough Pine Bunting, it is about one or two hundred metres to different point of the hedgerow, and unless you have top quality optics, the plumage differences are hard to distinguish. It's a very tricky bird amongst at least 300 finches present, all flying to and fro.
 
Part of the problem with any twitch is that you have so many trigger-happy birders in one place and all wanting desperately to see a rarity - surely a recipe for error!
 
Am I getting way too old? When I was twitching in the 90's I don't remember any of this. Admittedly there were almost no cameras but the thought of someone retrospectively ticking anything from a photograph confirmation - well lets face it, I never saw it happen?
No offence to those that do as most of you probably weren't born when I saw my first Pine Bunting in Dagenham - different times, different rules?
Luv Dave
 
Am I getting way too old? When I was twitching in the 90's I don't remember any of this. Admittedly there were almost no cameras but the thought of someone retrospectively ticking anything from a photograph confirmation - well lets face it, I never saw it happen?
No offence to those that do as most of you probably weren't born when I saw my first Pine Bunting in Dagenham - different times, different rules?
Luv Dave

Well said Dave! It's all a bit 'fake' to me too. Take photos and get someone else to identify everything for you later. The old field skills are dying; next stop virtual reality birding, so you don't even have to leave your comfy front room!

RB
 
Actually, this side of the pond, there has been a program developed that works like this: you point your phone camera at a bird (hope it will hold still long enough), it reads key features then tells you what the bird is (or at least a short list). This is based on community scientist input, location, and existing data. I guess it won't work well for rarities, but it makes honing bird identification skills unnecessary....then maybe virtual reality birding....
 
Well said Dave! It's all a bit 'fake' to me too. Take photos and get someone else to identify everything for you later. The old field skills are dying; next stop virtual reality birding, so you don't even have to leave your comfy front room!

RB

I think it is possible that a different thing is at play: excitement at the spot makes one feel "yes, got it", but when coming home, doubt start creeping in. 25 years ago, that doubt would have nowhere to go, today there are the photos.

I cannot know which of the two scenarios is correct in this case\

Niels
 
Well said Dave! It's all a bit 'fake' to me too. Take photos and get someone else to identify everything for you later. The old field skills are dying; next stop virtual reality birding, so you don't even have to leave your comfy front room!

RB

I can understand that viewpoint from a "common" species perspective, but the whole point of twitching something is often that you haven't seen that species before and thus don't necessarily have the confidence in your own skills to be positive in that identification. Surely far better that than going back to a point where when in doubt people can just think that they saw something and take that as read without review by more experienced people to confirm it?
 
Well said Dave! It's all a bit 'fake' to me too. Take photos and get someone else to identify everything for you later. The old field skills are dying; next stop virtual reality birding, so you don't even have to leave your comfy front room!

RB

I can understand that viewpoint from a "common" species perspective, but the whole point of twitching something is often that you haven't seen that species before and thus don't necessarily have the confidence in your own skills to be positive in that identification. Surely far better that than going back to a point where when in doubt people can just think that they saw something and take that as read without review by more experienced people to confirm it?

Yes if just taking a photo and making no effort to id at the time (taking notes, comparing size, shape, sound, behaviour etc) then yes, I think that's a bit lazy.

However, if you do as much as you can at the time and are able to take a photo, and have an idea of the species but want confirmation, then feedback from more experienced birders will help you for the next time.

Even for the more experienced this is useful for say gulls, or subspecies of wagtail or recent splits of stonechat etc

In both cases above the threads provide thought provoking discussion.
 
Well said Dave! It's all a bit 'fake' to me too. Take photos and get someone else to identify everything for you later. The old field skills are dying; next stop virtual reality birding, so you don't even have to leave your comfy front room!

RB

I guess it works both ways. Two recent star birds, the Eyebrowed and Dusky Thrush were both posted by non-birders and identified online. Cyberspace does have its rewards.

Everyone who bothered to go certainly enjoyed the latter.
 
I guess it works both ways. Two recent star birds, the Eyebrowed and Dusky Thrush were both posted by non-birders and identified online. Cyberspace does have its rewards.

Everyone who bothered to go certainly enjoyed the latter.

Don't you mean three with the Blue Rock Thrush? ;)
 
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