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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LowellMills" data-source="post: 3315155" data-attributes="member: 101146">Even in November the male and female first years are *virtually* indistinguishable, at least in the field, from each other and also from adult females, all the way to the breeding season where the first-year plumage wears down its tips on both sexes to reveal strong black and peach male colouration or drabber female.In the hand you could PROBABLY ID first year from adult birds from: * juvenile-like feather shapes on tail or primary coverts* contrast within partially replaced sets of coverts like the greater coverts* state of the primaries which will look more worn on first years, being less recently grown as they're the same ones they left the nest with (adults having replaced theirs post-breeding).</blockquote>