Bunting ? (1 Viewer)

[PWG]

Last Saturday on Hartland Point, Devon UK. The closest I can get is probably a bunting? After searching a great pile of bird guides I still can't get any closer.

 

[StuartReeves]

Bit of a puzzler, but I think it's a Reed Bunting, Emberiza schoeniclus, in some sort of adult female or immature male plumage

 

[Touty]

Last Saturday on Hartland Point, Devon UK. The closest I can get is probably a bunting? After searching a great pile of bird guides I still can't get any closer.

Looks like a male reed bunting coming into summer plumage but it's incredibly late. I'd send it around.

 

[TWM]

That is a real puzzler! Reed bunting is a possible but there are a lot of features that don't fit. I'm stumped!

 

[timmyjones]

It looks like a reed bunting but it hasnt got any markings on the breast and no sign of a white collar i'm willing to stick my neck out and have it choped off by some one saying its within the variation of reed bunt but seen as its in devon reed x cirl

 

[cuckooroller]

For some reason I want to see Calcarius here. It is puzzling.

 

[David FG]

I think the most likely solution is Reed Bunting, but I get a hint of Little Bunting - Emberiza pusilla, but that is incredibly unlikely.

 

[timmyjones]

why do you want to see a lapland bunting Steve

 

[Tim100]

Looks like a male reed bunting coming into summer plumage but it's incredibly late. I'd send it around.

Sounds good to me.

Perhaps the snow we had a little while back confused it?

 

[Ghostly Vision]

Just looks like an unmoulted Reed bunting male to me. If you fill in the white with black where it would be in SP, then there's nothing anomalous about it.

The breast is streaked, but light is blowing them out.

GV

 

[Lucky Birder]

I've never seen a Reed Bunting in this plumage, but perhaps I've not seen enough Reed Buntings.

 

[Jane Turner]

Actually I have seen and handled loads of Reed Bunts and never seen one look like this. What I can't square is where the russet/chestnut on the crown and rear ear coverts from. The mantle lines also seem much whiter than you would expect. There is also a lot more chestnut lone in the wing coverts. It looks like a Reed Bunting structurally. I'm wondering if is another example of erythrism (spp) like this one!

http://www.birdforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=7417

 

[Lucky Birder]

But that does sort of look like a Reed Bunting. The bird in the original photo has a Lappo look about it.

 

[Jane Turner]

There is no hint of Lapper structure though - and they are not known for perching on wires!

 

[Lucky Birder]

True. I didn't mean to say it was a Lappland, just that it sort of looked like one in a manner of speaking - ish.

 

[Lucky Birder]

Actually, the bird on the wire doesn't look anything like the bird in the first two pics, although presumably it is or PWG would have said.

 

[pianoman]

The bird in pics 3, 4 and 5 show no hint of white below the malar patches, yet bird 1 and 2 do quite strongly. Since I'm sure PWG has got the same bird, perhaps there is a curious light effect bleaching out some of the colours. If you turn the white on rear ear coverts and mantle buff brown instead perhaps you'd have something more like a F Reed transitioning W - S?


Andrew

 

[Lucky Birder]

Yes, the last three pics look quite Reed Buntingy

 

[Touty]

Just looks like an unmoulted Reed bunting male to me. If you fill in the white with black where it would be in SP, then there's nothing anomalous about it.

The breast is streaked, but light is blowing them out.

GV

I agree. The only issue is that the summer plumage in male buntings is brought about through feather wear (i.e the black or yellow or whatever is there in winter plumage and comes out as the tips wear off). Most male reed buntings resemble the Hartland photo in late January.

 

[Jane Turner]

I'm still sure I have never seen a western reed bunt with such white braces.