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UK - Two Geese (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Mad Scientist
- Start date
The Snapper
Well-known member
Yes Greylag for first photo, and Pale-Bellied Brent for the second.
Nutcracker
Stop Brexit!
It doesn't, because it's a juvenile :t:
Mad Scientist
Well-known member
Thanks very much for your help The Snapper and Nutcracker.
The Brent Goose is a Dark-bellied (bernicla) and not pale-bellied (hrota) as suggested.
Even if this individual is set under a pretty strong light (especially on the posterior quartes, with a correspondig strong shadow cast on its anteriors), the best pointers visible for bernicla are:
- the very little contrast between the blackish breast / rectrices and the rather dark grey belly / undewing coverts (almost black-and-white contrast in hrota)
- the rather uniform color of the flanks, from breast to tail (pale-bellied juveniles have almost whitish central flanks contrasting with light smoky fore-belly and a darker comma just before the undertail coverts)
- the presence of grey pigment shaped like a neat dark backward protrusion, from the center of the belly toward the undertail coverts (absent or faded in pale-bellied)
- the robust-looking and thick-based bill with a strongly humped culmen (much slimmer and more pointed in hrota, with a sloping or slightly concave culmen)
If you compare this bird with those depicted in this photographs found on the internet, you can see that the differences between bernicla and hrota, both structural and chromatic, are fairly strong and constant!
Greetings
Igor Festari, Italy
Even if this individual is set under a pretty strong light (especially on the posterior quartes, with a correspondig strong shadow cast on its anteriors), the best pointers visible for bernicla are:
- the very little contrast between the blackish breast / rectrices and the rather dark grey belly / undewing coverts (almost black-and-white contrast in hrota)
- the rather uniform color of the flanks, from breast to tail (pale-bellied juveniles have almost whitish central flanks contrasting with light smoky fore-belly and a darker comma just before the undertail coverts)
- the presence of grey pigment shaped like a neat dark backward protrusion, from the center of the belly toward the undertail coverts (absent or faded in pale-bellied)
- the robust-looking and thick-based bill with a strongly humped culmen (much slimmer and more pointed in hrota, with a sloping or slightly concave culmen)
If you compare this bird with those depicted in this photographs found on the internet, you can see that the differences between bernicla and hrota, both structural and chromatic, are fairly strong and constant!
Greetings
Igor Festari, Italy
Mad Scientist
Well-known member
Thank you for your very detailed post Igor. I've looked at various images now from the web, and for the life of me, I still couldn't be sure about the bird above without the help of people like your good self. |=)|
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