Northern Wheatear or Eastern Black-Eared Wheatear (Turkey, West) (1 Viewer)

[cduruk]

An old sighting from the year 2010, month July. In this region of Turkey, northern and eastern black-eared wheatears share the habitat. There is only one photo, and from this angle, it seemed to me that both species can be considered. Is there a way to identify from this angle? Thanks in advance,

 

[dwatsonbirder]

It's an Eastern Black-eared - check the pale mantle colour, lack of buff/orange colouration on the breast (though some races of northern have restricted, or even washed out appearance not dissimilar), pale mantle and extent of the bandit mask. Hope this helps!

 

[cduruk]

It's an Eastern Black-eared - check the pale mantle colour, lack of buff/orange colouration on the breast (though some races of northern have restricted, or even washed out appearance not dissimilar), pale mantle and extent of the bandit mask. Hope this helps!

thank you for your reply. my notes:

- as for the lack of buff/orange coloration on the breast: I think this is not a definitive characteristic. I have seen many reference photos where both species have this color on the breast, and probably, we could have seen it should the photo have been better.

- as for the extent of the mask: I still do not think it is big enough to say that this is definitely a black-eared, but I am not that certain.

- as for the pale mantle: since mantle is the top part of the back of a bird, we do not see it here, right? may be you are referring to the nape which we can see, at least partially. I have to say that this is something I did not check before. checking the resources, I could see that the northern wheatear never has a white nape.

In the end, I agree with your identification. This has been very helpful, thanks again...