Jane Turner
Well-known member
Filey swift: Massive amount of subjectivity involved. I saw the photographed Filey swift very well (or at least I think it was the same bird - there were several around) and even though the views were just about as good as you could possibly expect I could never really see (obvious) scaling on the body (underparts) even though you knew pretty much the photos would show some - it's always there to a greater or lesser degree. This made me think it probably wasn't a Pallid. Whether I'm right or not I'm still not sure.
I've been thinking that may be digital photography has a propensity for exaggerating the contrast (and making birds look scaly)