A few other threads recently have discussed species pairs or groups that cause many of us identification headaches as it were. So which pairs or groups do you have particular trouble with? I'd be particularly interested in ones that are perhaps less obvious or that are not dealt with in much detail in field guides. Are there species that you find it hard to separate even though you've read everything you can on them and see them often enough? The sort of "Grrrr, this should be easy!!!" birds that really do your head in. Any ID tips on difficult pairs would obviously be welcomed.
Just to start things off, I spent much of yesterday afternoon peering out onto a rather gloomy Largo Bay trying to work out if I was seeing Slavonian Grebes or Red-necked Grebes. Happily I was looking at both (24 of the former and 13 of the latter). I often find these two very hard to separate even though I see Slavs quite regularly and Red-necked fairly often. Slavs are easy enough when they're nice and clean cut and black and white but you get those dusky birds and birds in moult. When you can't assess the size very easily these can look very like a Red-necked, both on plumage and jizz (so even Spud and Jane might find them tricky?). This is before we even bring Black-necked Grebes etc into the equation.
Just to start things off, I spent much of yesterday afternoon peering out onto a rather gloomy Largo Bay trying to work out if I was seeing Slavonian Grebes or Red-necked Grebes. Happily I was looking at both (24 of the former and 13 of the latter). I often find these two very hard to separate even though I see Slavs quite regularly and Red-necked fairly often. Slavs are easy enough when they're nice and clean cut and black and white but you get those dusky birds and birds in moult. When you can't assess the size very easily these can look very like a Red-necked, both on plumage and jizz (so even Spud and Jane might find them tricky?). This is before we even bring Black-necked Grebes etc into the equation.
