Stonechat, Flycatcher or other? (Netherlands, May 22, 2022) (1 Viewer)

[Frank-birding]

Hello,

Yesterday on a walk over heathland in the North-east of the Netherlands (Balloërveld, National Park Drentsche Aa) I saw this bird. Unfortunately it was far away and heat waves ruined the chance for a decent image. It was only perched briefly on top of heather to fly off into the undergrowth nearby not to return. While at first I assumed a male Stonechat, it caught my eye because of its quite black and white appearance, with very large white patches in the neck (almost forming a collar) and striking white patches on the wings as well.

Would it be a Flycatcher instead of a Stonechat? Could an ID be made, despite my dreadful images?

Regards, Frank

 

[HouseCrow]

Looks like a sun-bleeched photo of a strongly marked male Stonechat. The chest usually should be orange but I suppose as the bird faces away from us, it is not visible.

Nice place...one of my favourite spots* in my area to go birding

*Edit: it is actually better for dragon- & butterflying but it is one of the prettiest areas in this part of NL
cheers,
G erben

 

[Frank-birding]

Thank you Gerben,

Yes, I was there for the first time, it's a magnificent area.

As for the sun-bleeched effect. I just saw that I fortunately managed to take 2 other images with adjusted exposure as well. I attached the 'best' one of those. Unfortunately in this image the bird is still stubbornly facing away from me...

It's a Stonechat indeed, thank you for the ID. Could the huge white neck patches and lot of white on the wings suggest an Eastern Stonechat? But I think the images aren't clear enough for such an ID. Also Eastern Stonechat is of course not very likely in the Netherlands.

Bye, Frank

 

[Brian J Small]

So why isn't this a Siberian Stonechat. Photos poor, but that rump and white flanks, wow!

Brian

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

Why not ‘continental’ Stonechat, like this one in the Brecks a week or so ago? Though I did wonder if it might be better…
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