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Redpoll sp (Mealy or Artic) (1 Viewer)

Heathy

Well-known member
Today at Stodmarsh i come across this pale Redpoll in with the Lesser's and 2 Mealy Redpolls. This one stood out like a sore thumb and would appreciate any help on the ID of this bird. It may just be a pale Mealy but there was little streaking on the flanks and when the bird flew away it showed an obvious white rump although i did not see whether the rump was streaked or not. Apologies for the quality of the photo.

Marc Heath (Kent)
 

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Hi Marc,

Just saw the image on surfbirds and emailed you; as I said in the email I would think a pale Mealy... but without any conformation on rump etc it is hard.

If you get it again let us know what it's like!

See enclosed photo, copyright Will Bowell. Another pale-ish Mealy.

Josh
 

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Heathy said:
Today at Stodmarsh i come across this pale Redpoll in with the Lesser's and 2 Mealy Redpolls. This one stood out like a sore thumb and would appreciate any help on the ID of this bird. It may just be a pale Mealy but there was little streaking on the flanks and when the bird flew away it showed an obvious white rump although i did not see whether the rump was streaked or not. Apologies for the quality of the photo.

Marc Heath (Kent)

Impossible to say on the image or the information provided. I would start from eth premise that it is a pale Mealy unless uou can prove otherwise, but you're going to have see it a lot better than this to get an ID. There were some very pale Mealies in Shetland this autumn as well, some of which needed looking at very closely to ID. In contrast, I don't know of a confirmed Arctic.
 
Artic or Mealy

I have another photo, I didn't realise i had 2 but this shows some streaking but there was not alot though, also bill does look quite heavy.

Marc


Mike Pennington said:
Impossible to say on the image or the information provided. I would start from eth premise that it is a pale Mealy unless uou can prove otherwise, but you're going to have see it a lot better than this to get an ID. There were some very pale Mealies in Shetland this autumn as well, some of which needed looking at very closely to ID. In contrast, I don't know of a confirmed Arctic.
 

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Heathy said:
I have another photo, I didn't realise i had 2 but this shows some streaking but there was not alot though, also bill does look quite heavy.

Marc

It's a male. Indeed, I would think it's probably an adult male on the extent of pink. All of which makes me even more suspicious that it's a pale Mealy. However, without seeing rump and undertail coverts we can't even start to make a case for Arctic.
 
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