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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteveMM" data-source="post: 3525977" data-attributes="member: 130392">It makes sense to start with the most numerous of the wintering taxa: taimyrensis (whatever that means). I'm under the impression now that this 'form' is being treated as a 'hybrid swarm' (between heuglini and vegae), hence characteristics of either of the two ancestral parent species could conceivably be evident in any given individual taimyrensis. This form does seem to be remarkably variable.My chief target with the camera today was a very dark (so lots of heuglini in it) first-winter taimyrensis that has been hanging around Chiayi. Malling Olsen and Larsson states (for heuglini) that juvenile plumage is retained until very late (December). It also states that grey feathers of an 'adult-type' or of a 'first-winter-type' can replace juvenile feathers in the moult to first-winter. Many of the new feathers apparent in the mantle and coverts of this bird seem to be of a very dark grey.Attached: First-winter taimyrensis (ID'd by uniformly solid dark greater coverts, absence of pale window, contrasting unmarked white uppertail, active moult to first-winter).</blockquote>