Stephen Dunstan
Registered User
Having read and contributed to an interesting thread on these on BF lately I have just got sight of a copy of Pipits and Wagtails. I have to say I'm a bit disappointed by its treatment of the littoralis / petrosus issues.
It says some petrosus look like littoralis and therefore ID of the latter is (except in exceptional Water Pipit like cases) unsafe. It doesn't say how common these lookalikes are, and how it is known they are petrosus and not out of range littoralis (cf Blue-headed Wagtails nesting in Britain). Is it from measurements? Anybody know how often these variants turn up, there are odd Yellow Wags which turn up now and again but we don't give up on identifying other races.
Also unless I have missed it the text seems to say nothing about a difference in outertail feather colouring for littoralis and petrosus. Even if the authors are discounting this previously accepted theory I would expect some reference to it.
I also think the Scandinavian bias to the photographs is unfortunate, with no definite petrosus pictured. The bird in plate 44 (sorry those without the book) is used to illustrate the fact that the outer tail can look white on all Rock Pipits, yet this bird has a very pronounced supercilium and could have white looking outer tail feathers because it is littoralis under the old scheme of things.
Apologies if this is rubbish or of no interest to anyone other than me.
Stephen.
It says some petrosus look like littoralis and therefore ID of the latter is (except in exceptional Water Pipit like cases) unsafe. It doesn't say how common these lookalikes are, and how it is known they are petrosus and not out of range littoralis (cf Blue-headed Wagtails nesting in Britain). Is it from measurements? Anybody know how often these variants turn up, there are odd Yellow Wags which turn up now and again but we don't give up on identifying other races.
Also unless I have missed it the text seems to say nothing about a difference in outertail feather colouring for littoralis and petrosus. Even if the authors are discounting this previously accepted theory I would expect some reference to it.
I also think the Scandinavian bias to the photographs is unfortunate, with no definite petrosus pictured. The bird in plate 44 (sorry those without the book) is used to illustrate the fact that the outer tail can look white on all Rock Pipits, yet this bird has a very pronounced supercilium and could have white looking outer tail feathers because it is littoralis under the old scheme of things.
Apologies if this is rubbish or of no interest to anyone other than me.
Stephen.