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="Silverwolf" data-source="post: 3308350" data-attributes="member: 84264">Adrian,have you personally seen saltmarsh that have any orange tint on the breast area? As far as I know any orange here, particularly like this bird has, is definite Nelson's. I have never seen saltmarsh that has had even a yellow tint here, besides one which was so intermediate it had to be left at genus level.The streaking on the flanks is in the overlap range, but there is something to be discerned from the breast and underpart streaking. It is more subtle in the central region and fades out which is typical for Nelson's, while saltmarsh maintains more-or-less uniform streaking.I'm not personally convinced there is saltmarsh-level streaking in the super. That eyelash-like mark on the super from the back of the eye occurs in Nelson's. There is only one mark that may be relevant to my eyes, which is at the very back of the supercilium, but its rather faint and indistinct which isn't how saltmarsh has it.Plus the back streaking, while variable, is pretty extensive. I've never seen a saltmarsh with white streaking like this, though I don't doubt they exist.There is still much to know about this pair and the information is split up over multiple people, so I'd like to hear your responses to these questions for my (and probably other's) interest.</blockquote>