• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Mallorca 2017 (3 Viewers)

I believe Great Crested Grebe have bred at Maristany for a few years now but they are only a recent addition to the breeding birds at that site with only one pair. Mike
 
Another one...

So here we go again. This time it is from Cúber. Now I think we will end up with a Sylvia warbler. Again the dark legs is the strange thing here. Can a Sardinian Warbler have such dark legs? Otherwise my first guess if I would have been at home would be Lesser Whitethtroat, but they are not supposed to breed on Mallorca I guess?

So what do you say? It was in the middle of "Moltoni's territory" some 150 metres south of the dam, down the small path east of the gorge.

Sardinian?
 

Attachments

  • sangare3.jpg
    sangare3.jpg
    601.5 KB · Views: 190
There is a hint of buff on the upper chest of this bird, particularly in photo one, and there appears to be some moustachial stripe. The eye doesn't look right for Sardinian. What about juvenile Moltoni's? I hope others can help you again. Mike
 
Hi Yens, many congratulations on finding such a rarity. I have been looking at the photos for some time and I also believe that all the features fit Western Olivaceous Warbler, the legs, bill and cold grey coloration all look good to me. A great find. Mike

Looks all correct to me with just one concern - the tail is not square ended. Doesn't look like a case of missing feathers but a slight, real fork. That said I'm definitely no expert on this species and it may be an age related feature
 
A nice morning in the delightful company of Ben Nevis. We meet up every year and go to see the Bee-eaters. We managed to see 9 today along the depuradora road which was a good number for this time of the year.
At the depuradora there were 3 Wood sandpipers, 2 Green sandpipers, 4 Purple Heron, Common terns and an unseasonal Gull-billed tern.
No sign of any Spotless Starlings at Can Cuarassa.
Mike
 
Hi guys, on July 3th I photographed a unknown bird flying south from Alcudia. The circumstances were poor, at 21h30 with backlight. Size and frequency of wingbeats were comparable with glossy ibis or a small egret like night heron, the last one also regularly flying by so good for comparing. The pic is heavily cropped (200%) with the brightness cranked up a bit. Fellow birdwatchers suggested crane (which I believe is larger and has slower wingbeats), demoiselle crane, reef egret, black egret,… Please advice, thanks!
 

Attachments

  • mystery.jpg
    mystery.jpg
    54.1 KB · Views: 241
I thought it maybe the same bird. In photo 3 the red hind crown and white upper neck are apparent making it Common Crane I believe.
The date is most unusual, post breeding birds don't normally appear until November at the earliest. A bit strange as it appears to be an adult bird.
Mike
 
Crane

Looks like Common Crane, but looks too rufous on the neck and head for an adult, so possibly a bird of this year, but strangely does'nt show contrast between black primes & secondaries and grey upper wing coverts.
Jonathan
 
Thanks Jonathan, I did wonder about the lack of contrast between the primaries and secondaries but I think the contrast may have been wiped out by the extreme lightening of the image on the computer. A young bird would seem more likely given the date which is very unusual and having looked more closely at the images I agree that it looks more like a bird from this year. Mike
 
Last edited:
Thanks Maties. That gave me a good laugh. I have been looking at the photos again and I just can't see a Cattle egret, it still looks like a Crane! Still, I accept your judgement and thank you for solving the problem. Mike
 
I suppose its because of the stretched neck (not so rare, by the way, in cattle egret). But bill and head profile, wing span and wing profile, neck length, wing color, etc, everything fits for cattle egret. And it's very common now in the area, as you know. Best wishes!
 
Some evidence of return migration today with a good selection of the more common waders at the marshes and some large groups of hirundines, mostly Barn Swallows and House Martins. Lots more to come I hope.
Cap de Ses Salines is still one of the best places to be for autumn migration, especially for raptors. Hope to see some of you there in September and early October. Mike
 
Arrived back home in rainy England today after 8 days in the sunny NE of Mallorca, and there are several points of interest I'd like to just bring up.

We managed to find eight Common Waxbills at the south end of the Cami des Polls, right next to the spring which honeym mentioned when I enquired about them back in May.

We had both Little Tern & Curlew Sandpiper at Albufera during our stay, birds which I understand are fairly scarce at this time of year, which were at Es Colombars & Sa Roca respectively. We also managed to see the Ruddy Shelduck at Maristany as well as a juvenile Bonelli's Eagle at Mortitx, but failed to find other rarities which we looked for, namely the Olivaceous warbler sp. (have put it to other UK birders, who can't seem to reach a consensus on its identity...) and the Western Reef Egret.

We discovered during the course of stay that most passerines had ceased most activity a little earlier than our previous visit in 2015. This was especially true in the case of the Moltoni's Warblers at Cuber: we managed to find just two birds compared to the six we had in 2015, and both were extremely inactive.

We managed to see 96 species during our 8 day stay, just short of the 97 we had in 2015.

May I thank everyone on here for providing us with information for both our trips, especially the long-standing Mike Montier: we hope to be back in either 2018 or 2019 (or indeed both!).

Best wishes,
Luke
 
Thanks Luke for your posts, much appreciated. Glad you had a good time. Well done with the Little tern, quite a scarce species here as you say. Other nice birds too. Hope you make it back here next year. All the best, Mike
 
Warning! This thread is more than 6 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top