Dave B Smith said:the male Lesser has a nice little row of white diamonds on his shoulder which also appear to be evident in this photo.
...
The Lesser would be out of range I believe (not sure if they
Since we get both the Common and Lesser Nighthawk here in AZ, I was curious about your last sentence.Ingo said:Also, I wasn't that sure that it couldn't be a Common, because (apart from the Sibley) my books tell me that they are undistinguishable without call ... so thanks for reassuring me. Ingo
Katy Penland said:Were you referring to these two species; or did you mean Common and Antillean, or Antillean and Lesser, cannot be distinguished except by call?
Ingo said:Luke,
thanks for advicing caution. I joined and posted the photos to ID-frontiers, I'll update this thread when I receive answers.
Martin Reid's bird number 4 is indeed puzzling, I gather a Lesser was really excluded in that case? But note that the bird (actually none on that page) does not show the contrasting tertials. Let's say I'm still optimistic for Antillean....
Cheers,
Ingo
njlarsen said:I found this in Howell and Webb: "penultimate primary tip spacing usually shorter than adjacent inner primary tip spacing at rest (longer in common)". I am not sure that I really know what a "primary tip spacing at rest" is.
Andrew Rowlands said:Niels,
I think this attachment illustrates the spacings and measurements (I doubled the pic before adding the rule and cropping).
Cheers,
Andy.
njlarsen said:Andy thanks, I feel really dense right now; it just shows that I have never been a ringer or seen a measurement like that done before. Talking about a pen-ultimate feather, the neighboring one must be the ultimate, which I guess it the frontal one when the wing is stretched. Is that the one to the left or right in your image? And if as I guess the ultimate is the left, then we are comparing gap no 2 with gap no 3?
Thanks
Niels