October Wheatear sp. - East Coast of England (1 Viewer)

[Idle Valley Birder]

If you would all be so kind as to humour me for a while and give your thoughts on the species depicted in the sketch in the attached item please.

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Could be a Pied.

I'm a bit intrigued as to why:

There is no specific date in 'October', and
This is coming out now....

 

[chris butterworth]

Def not a Pied as there is no mention of the mantle being 'scalloped', IMO one of the immediate things you notice ( I know Black-eared can show it - but not to the same extent). If it was a Pied, I would also expect the mention of the bird being noticably dark as well. Most of the description doesn't rule out a bright, autumnal Northern, it's just that anomalous tail pattern ( the same on Pied and Be, in most cases ) that's making me wonder.

Chris

 

[Mark Lew1s]

I must admit that the tail was what swayed me pied-ward. I agree about the general appearance of the rest of the bird.

 

[Idle Valley Birder]

Could be a Pied.
I'm a bit intrigued as to why: There is no specific date in 'October', and
This is coming out now....

It was 2010

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Ahhhh...that makes perfect sense then...