Bunting Portugal Yesterday (1 Viewer)

So had this bird yesterday - through binos I didn't think this was a reed bunting. Looking at the pictures it looks like one but the legs for one are very light....

Any thoughts? I have obviously lightened one...

One other thing that puzzles me is the white spot on the cheek.

Looks like we are having a row of Portuguese Cirl on BF .

Tib78 said:

Looks like we are having a row of Portuguese Cirl on BF .

Click to expand...

:t:

We do have rather a lot of Cirl Buntings in Portugal, in many areas they are quite common indeed

Thanks for prompt replies.

Actually almost identical to Asturias bird on another thread... white spot ‘an-all’

Please note, if I remember it correctly (I actually havent this book at hand), that the pale ear-covert spot was mentioned as a field-mark (less than an ID- criteria) by Andrew Cole in "In search of the Cirl Bunting". I looked at many Cirl Buntings, but found many females where this spot was absent.
In Yellowhammer this feature is quite variable, but rarely so well marked as in Cirl.
As a very general rule, it is either present and obvious in (winter) female Cirl, or absent (" intermediate" birds are quite rare).
In Yellowhammer this feature is ranked from absent to quite obvious. Although, in many cases, when this spot is obvious in Yellowhammer, the ear-coverts are uniformly dark (and not pale, framed dark by eye- and moustachial stripe as in Cirl).

Also note that the late Martin Garner mentioned this a the "rare bunting rear ear covert spot" in regard to Pine bunting ID: https://birdingfrontiers.wordpress.com/2011/12/24/female-pine-bunting/

Here is Yellowhammer with a well marked rear ear covert spot for comparison:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmJTo7pj

Great posts - very informative thank you...