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Lark ID CYPRUS (1 Viewer)

RE Birder

Birding not twitching
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Is this a Lesser short toed Lark? In with a field of short toed, looking at the long PP.
 
Josh,

nice photo. Looks like ST to me. I think I know where you saw this bird and it is a cracking place for this species.

Rich
 
Cracking thanks - migration well and truly happening. 38 Wood Sandpipers at Leatherneck yesterday! Didn't realise that you are a Wildlife Crimes Officer - you lucky, lucky ba**ard!

Cheers Rich, you are getting some fantastic birds out there! Hoping to get out with the AOU when you get back

Josh
 
the wing is held slightly open in the photo, so the primaries are visible more so than on a closed wing, a LST lark has a thicker bill.

surely this does not effect the relative position of the tertial TIPS and the primary tips (as compared along the wing). I'm not 100% on this but think this bird DOES have a good PP.

cheers, alan
 

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For what it's worth, it looks like LSTL to me depite only having seen STL in the fleah, it's got a pretty stubby bill too rather than long, and it's more that it doesn't seem to fit Short-toed jizz wise for me
 
surely this does not effect the relative position of the tertial TIPS and the primary tips (as compared along the wing). I'm not 100% on this but think this bird DOES have a good PP.

cheers, alan

I agree it's clearly got a pp, not sure I'm 100% certain it's a LSTL though & with the bird being slightly out of focus it's very difficult to judge the bill size & shape so I'd leave it unid'd.
 
Guys, thanks for those recent replies, not trying to turn it into a LST but it did seem different to the other ST which were present and was very plain around the head. No experience prior to this trip of ethier species. I was working at he time so didn't have too long to study them.
 
Interesting bird. Plumage looks very STL-like, but i'm finding this difficult to reconcile with that primary projection. Does any one know if Spring STL can ever show a wingtip like this, due to moult perhaps? Can't imagine so or we'd have heard about it - but i don't know for sure. Reason i ask is because i had some Calandrellas in eastern Syria a few Springs ago which looked just like STL on plumage (and i felt, call) but had a striking prim proj. I wondered about a different ssp of LSTL with plumage like a STL. They actually bore a striking resemblance to cheelensis Asian Short Toed.
 
an even worse photo, but here's a spring short-toed lark showing quite a nice primary projection. Now that I've seen a short-toed lark (this week) I'm not sure which one your photo is - the only lessers I've seen were in the Canary Isles and look quite different anyway.
 

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Here are pics of STL and LSTL both taken in Sth Spain about 6 weeks ago. Judge for yourself bill shape, pp and plumage. Personally I think it looks more LSTL, but I am usually wrong!

John
 

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an even worse photo, but here's a spring short-toed lark showing quite a nice primary projection. Now that I've seen a short-toed lark (this week) I'm not sure which one your photo is - the only lessers I've seen were in the Canary Isles and look quite different anyway.

On 1st glance, and 2nd and 3rd, it certainly looks fairly clear as to where the tertials finish and the pp starts. But i'm starting to wonder if in fact what looks like the primaries, is in fact more tertials - they are long on STL. Did it strike you in the field as having a noticeable pp?
 
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