BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="JANJ" data-source="post: 1466564" data-attributes="member: 20722">As mentioned earlier - the middle tertial pattern might seem out of line for a female SCF and indeed many have a thinner white edge. On the other hand, Krister Mild shows in his Birding World article, that some can have a rather broad edge near the base of the middle tertial and even on the longest tertial. These individuals would make a fairly good match to both PF & CF. Regarding the width of the white tips on the greater coverts, it seems to ba a fairly variable feature on SCF, making the finnish bird not an exceptional one refering to this feature alone. Some SCF caught in Israel in spring shows variable broadness to tips of greater coverts and some have a slight variable middle tertial pattern with slightly broader edge near the base. However, it should be noted that the white base to secondaries might merge together with the tips of greater coverts on the closed wing, making greater covert tips look broader than they really are:<a href="http://www.tarsiger.com/gallery/index.php?pic_id=muu1203454396&lang=eng" target="_blank">http://www.tarsiger.com/gallery/index.php?pic_id=muu1203454396&lang=eng</a>However, it should be pointed out  that identification of females of all three species can be extremely difficult and it could well be that the subject bird is only some variant of either PF or CF (or SCF<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />) for that matter.Wonder what KM would have to say about this one?JanJ</blockquote>

Verification