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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Redwings NE.London. (1 Viewer)

KenM

KenM

Well-known member
A couple of shots from last week, left hand bird almost pale compared to the right hand bird.

Am wondering whether the darker almost solid ear coverts, contrasting pale edges to tertial/secondaries and the heavier breast streaking of the right hand bird, might be attributable to T.i.coburni...indeed what significance in particular the contrasting wing might denote?


Cheers
 

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The r/b bird is a 1st-w on account of moult limit in the gc's, the outermost are pale tipped =juvenile, (at least 3 inner are adult-type) as are the the lower 2 tertials so, nothing to do with origin. As to race, the images are poor quality but both birds appear to have very pale legs/feet which is a feature of iliacus whereas in coburni they are typically darker reddish-brown/brown in colouration https://two-in-a-bush.blogspot.com/2014/11/redwings-coburni-v-iliacus.html

Grahame
 
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Yes thanks Grahame, I did wonder about the pale tips!, having observed as such previously, on Com.Redstart and Chiff Chaff, although I would have expected this feature on passerines to be mentioned more often in text, either that, or I’m not reading the appropriate tomes.

Cheers :t:
 
The left hand bird is more 'blown' and over-exposed than the right hand bird (compare eg the tail underside grey tones), so to actively compare other features a bit of a non-starter unfortunately imo.

I'm sure there was some difference in real life, but the right hand bird still within range of iliacus presumably, as well as the leg colour as Grahame mentioned.
 
I don't think the left bird is more blown out as much as it just has more white. Note the head colouring is just as exposed as the right bird, and so is the darker part of the tail. A bird with more white reflects more light, which makes it appear paler even in the same lighting.

Sorry not sure why I felt the need to debate this...;)
 
Silverwolf said:
I don't think the left bird is more blown out as much as it just has more white. Note the head colouring is just as exposed as the right bird, and so is the darker part of the tail. A bird with more white reflects more light, which makes it appear paler even in the same lighting.

Sorry not sure why I felt the need to debate this...;)
Click to expand...

.....The difference in breast streaking was also quite marked!

Cheers
 
Silverwolf said:
I don't think the left bird is more blown out as much as it just has more white. Note the head colouring is just as exposed as the right bird, and so is the darker part of the tail. A bird with more white reflects more light, which makes it appear paler even in the same lighting.

Sorry not sure why I felt the need to debate this...;)
Click to expand...

Because you love it ;)

However, I disagree - the twigs are overexposed, and if you compare the leg of the left hand bird to the leg of the right hand bird it has virtually disappeared into the white background.

I'm very happy with Ken saying the right hand bird was darker - the streaks on the breast I'm sure were sharper and on a paler background for example on the other bird. What I'm saying is that it is a less than ideal photo, and I think it is hard to draw firm conclusions.
 
dantheman said:
Because you love it ;)

However, I disagree - the twigs are overexposed, and if you compare the leg of the left hand bird to the leg of the right hand bird it has virtually disappeared into the white background.

I'm very happy with Ken saying the right hand bird was darker - the streaks on the breast I'm sure were sharper and on a paler background for example on the other bird. What I'm saying is that it is a less than ideal photo, and I think it is hard to draw firm conclusions.
Click to expand...

For Dan’s delectation....having trawled through countless Redwing images...yawn ;)...I note that in virtually all the images, the ear coverts are concolourous with nape/mantle and back, save for a few that have pale areas within the EC’s, quite unlike the subject bird which shows much darker EC’s...of course this may be down to light refraction on the “angled” head.....?
 
dantheman said:
Because you love it ;)

However, I disagree - the twigs are overexposed, and if you compare the leg of the left hand bird to the leg of the right hand bird it has virtually disappeared into the white background.

I'm very happy with Ken saying the right hand bird was darker - the streaks on the breast I'm sure were sharper and on a paler background for example on the other bird. What I'm saying is that it is a less than ideal photo, and I think it is hard to draw firm conclusions.
Click to expand...

I think the left leg on the left bird disappears because it is against the lit surface of the branch...! The light bouncing off the branch could easily do that. Whereas the right bird's legs are against the sky, so no interference. Look at the right bird's leg and tell me that colour would not blend in with the branch...

Of course this has no effect on the ID really so I guess we can stop and agree to disagree :-O
 
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