gerdwichers8 said:
The bathing one is either a worn adult or first winter male eunomus; mostly identified by the blackish chest(eunomus feature) and rufous wing(male feature)
The one at the grassfield is a first winter naumanni; possibly a female; identified by the abundant orange patterning (naumanni); the headpattern and its colour (naumanni) the broad supercilium brown white and grey (first winter);its upperparts ( first winter); the dark flecks through the red pattern (naumannifirst winter)
Hey Gerd
It wasn't the bird in the first pic that I was curious about. I knew that was a 1st winter eunomus - Dusky. We literally have 1000's every winter in Wester Japan. However, Naumann's is much scarcer in Wester Japan, with only 1 in 200 or so birds being Naumanni. The dark-thooated Thrush is a true rarity still, with 1-2 records a year, but in recent years several hybrids have been claimed.
My first thought was that the 2nd and 3rd birds were 1st winter naumanni as you say.
However, when looking at the pics again, especially of the 3rd bird,,there were a couple o things that didn't seem quite right.
Firstly the area around the eye and cheeks is usually pale on Naumann's, but it is dark on that bird.
Secondly the dark spotting on the breast seemed to be more like spots than the v-marks one might expect on a Naummann's or Dusky.
Lastly, and it is not clear in the 3rd picture, but unlike the 2nd bird and most other naumann's I have seen, the tail was brown, with only the outer tail feathers a dark reddish.
Having said all that of course I know how variable the taxon is and would be happy with the ID of Naumann's.
Here are some more pics of the 3rd bird..
Cheers
Sean :bounce: