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Wheatears - Ethiopia Feb 24 (1 Viewer)

J

jstanleyg

Well-known member
I have these wheatears ID'd as
1. Cyprus
2. Isabelline

What do you think?
 

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Isabelline is ok. I'm not sure that we can be positive on such a noisy photo, but I'd rather say a Pied Wheatear on the first.
 
Interesting, I thought that at first, too. The photo is pretty bad, I admit, but I thought that the extent of white on the nape and the larger black 'pathway' between white in breast and back of head favored Cyprus. It was also notably stockier in appearance in the field.
 
jstanleyg said:
Interesting, I thought that at first, too. The photo is pretty bad, I admit, but I thought that the extent of white on the nape and the larger black 'pathway' between white in breast and back of head favored Cyprus. It was also notably stockier in appearance in the field.
Click to expand...

I've seen thousands of Pied W. in Ethiopia, and finding one Cyprus can be tough, although there are there; something like 1 for 500.. I've noticed how variable is Pied, and there is nothing here that make me exclude the default species, although, as said, with my knowledge, the photo is not enough for a positive ID. Other more skillful guys might have a better, authoritative opinion...
 
Valéry Schollaert said:
I've seen thousands of Pied W. in Ethiopia, and finding one Cyprus can be tough, although there are there; something like 1 for 500.. I've noticed how variable is Pied, and there is nothing here that make me exclude the default species, although, as said, with my knowledge, the photo is not enough for a positive ID. Other more skillful guys might have a better, authoritative opinion...
Click to expand...

I certainly agree with you on the ratio of Cyprus to Pied, my experience is the same... I've only seen one Cyprus in the 4 years I've been here in Ethiopia. Unless someone with more experience can tell from my bad photo, I will have to mark it as pied.
 
Anybody have any thoughts one way or another? Perhaps Valéry is right and it is simply too poor of a photo to make a call.
 
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