Female of Mountain Gem (Panama) (1 Viewer)

[Hippolais]

I photographed this female of Mountain gem in Guadalupe (Chiriquì, Panama) in April, but i coudn't understand how to tell if is it a Purple or White-throated mountain Gem. Can anybody solve my doubts, please?

 

[njlarsen]

As far as I know you need to see the male to be sure. The bar chart for the area does not help too much: even though white-throated is more common, the other is still there. https://ebird.org/barchart?r=L1482577&yr=all&m=

Niels

 

[THE_FERN]

As far as I know you need to see the male to be sure. The bar chart for the area does not help too much: even though white-throated is more common, the other is still there. https://ebird.org/barchart?r=L1482577&yr=all&m=

Niels

Yes, but following ebird and putting my neck out, I'd say purple based on fairly green tail in photo 2 (cf dull blackish/bronzish). Macaulay photos suggest this is (just about) visible...

 

[njlarsen]

It is funny because I have the original version of the Garrigues and Dean (2007) CR Field guide and of the Angehr and Dean (2010) field guide for Panama. In the 2007 book it is mentioned that the female Purple-thr has a brighter great tail vs a duller bronzy-green tail in female White-thr. In the 2010 book it just states that the females likely cannot be distinguished in the field. I wonder if the text had changed in the second edition CR book?

Niels

 

[THE_FERN]

It is funny because I have the original version of the Garrigues and Dean (2007) CR Field guide and of the Angehr and Dean (2010) field guide for Panama. In the 2007 book it is mentioned that the female Purple-thr has a brighter great tail vs a duller bronzy-green tail in female White-thr. In the 2010 book it just states that the females likely cannot be distinguished in the field. I wonder if the text had changed in the second edition CR book?

Niels

Valley and Dyer 2018 Central America guide helpfully says females "closely resemble" each other... Just to muddy things, whilst they don't comment on the trail differences, the illustrations are consistent with them: purple with a clearly all-green tail. Noting this suggests the op's photo (s) are white-throated but I guess I stick by purple as this seems closer to the macauley images (always assuming these are correctly identified)

 

[Hippolais]

I've also found this description, but they still give rather subjective features, hard to be evaluated without a good comparison draw: https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/wtmgem1/appearance/
I also have a couple pictures taken in the same places, but some hours later, that might show the same individual, but also not, especially because the tails seems to be different...

 

[THE_FERN]

I've also found this description, but they still give rather subjective features, hard to be evaluated without a good comparison draw: https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/wtmgem1/appearance/
I also have a couple pictures taken in the same places, but some hours later, that might show the same individual, but also not, especially because the tails seems to be different...

Apart from the white tips (so clearly (a) different individual/s), pics seem similar to the first photos. So whatever that is... I voted purple (see amended comments above)