ID's needed - Tring Reservoirs, Tring, Hertfordshire, England, UK (1 Viewer)

[BenjiS]

Seen today, most I am pretty sure of but just want to double check
All except flying warbler? are labelled what I think, flying one my guess is either sedge or reed warbler

TIA

 

[andrew_s]

Chiffchaff (short primary projection), albino rather than leucistic pochard (red eye). raven, sedge warbler perhaps

 

[foresttwitcher]

Agree with andrew_s except is the Corvid not a Carrion Crow?

 

[BenjiS]

The reason I thought Raven was that it seemed to bigger than a few crows that were with it (before I got a photo)

 

[Bewick]

Personally looks more crow to me, I believe ravens are quite scarce in Hertfordshire as well.

 

[Jonno52]

The corvid doesn’t seem to have the massive bill of Raven.

 

[Bewick]

The corvid doesn’t seem to have the massive bill of Raven.

Exactly my thinking- I see raven pretty regularly in my patch and the bill is extremely noticeable.

 

[Bewick]

Apologies for the quality of my photo but you can see the difference between heaviness of the bills of the bird in your photograph and this raven. Though the best way of distinguishing the difference is having them in close proximity with jackdaws... they tower over jackdaws.

 

[BenjiS]

OK, thanks all!

 

[Butty]

albino rather than leucistic pochard (red eye)

Clearly not albino. And the red is v possibly photo-artefact - note the red fringes around other edges.
Corvid doesn't show anything to suggest raven. As has been often discussed (and shown) in these columns, bill-shape and -size are variable and commonly very difficult to make an ID on (and I wouldn't even suspect raven from your bird's bill anyway). Your best chance was probably before it landed, in seeing tail-shape (and to a lesser extent wing-shape) in flight - and, especially, hearing it call (key feature). (I get the impression that ravens are cropping up pretty widely; I now see them regularly in lowland flat Shropshire for instance.)
Flier looks v plausibly sedge warbler.

 

[Xenospiza]

The nasal bristles of the corvid obviously cover less than 50% of the bill => Carrion Crow.
This tends to be a good feature even on bad pictures of "large corvids". And indeed it confirms the identification of Bewick's photo as Raven .

 

[Butty]

tends to be a good feature

That feature has been tested before in these columns and found wanting.

 

[Farnboro John]

Clearly not albino. And the red is v possibly photo-artefact - note the red fringes around other edges.
Corvid doesn't show anything to suggest raven. As has been often discussed (and shown) in these columns, bill-shape and -size are variable and commonly very difficult to make an ID on (and I wouldn't even suspect raven from your bird's bill anyway). Your best chance was probably before it landed, in seeing tail-shape (and to a lesser extent wing-shape) in flight - and, especially, hearing it call (key feature). (I get the impression that ravens are cropping up pretty widely; I now see them regularly in lowland flat Shropshire for instance.)
Flier looks v plausibly sedge warbler.

Concur re Pochard. Ghosting of pattern and normal bill colour support leucism. Pochard has a red eye anyway and if it caught the light then it could easily look like this.

Also see a Carrion Crow not a Raven, even an immature Raven has a heavier bill than this.

Chiffchaff and Sedge Warbler seem reasonable.

John

 

[Bewick]

I agree with sedge warbler as well for the last one.

 

[BenjiS]

Thanks everyone!

 

[IanW]

Thanks everyone!

The pochard is a regular summer visitor (for at least 6 years) and is referred to as "The Ghost". It is also seen around Bucks and on Otmoor where I believe it summers. It is back early this year as the pochard numbers increase (had up to 20 different birds recently).