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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CAU" data-source="post: 1450731" data-attributes="member: 55324">Interesting birds! The breast of the fourth bird in post #4 looks so intensely scarlet, that I suspect that it might be a Lesser. The first bird lacks a red cap, a feature that I don't recall seeing on adult Mealies but instead on some Lessers (but maybe I haven't looked closely enough at Mealies...). The second and third birds show some buff colour on the breast and flanks, which at this time of the year is possibly better for Lesser, but not conclusive. The third bird has a more uniformly coloured head, which again fits better Lesser. The fifth bird could again be a slightly browner Mealy, or perhaps it's just a Lesser... As many of these are pretty greyish lacking too much brown tones on the head, perhaps it's best to call the fifth bird in post #1 just a redpoll species after all (it does look somewhat petite after all and adult males are not easy at least at this time of the year)?Here are some brownish Mealies from Finland (or at least presumably Mealies) for comparison:<a href="http://www.lintukuva.fi/lajikuvat/kuvahtml/0carmea327.html" target="_blank">http://www.lintukuva.fi/lajikuvat/kuvahtml/0carmea327.html</a><a href="http://www.lintukuva.fi/lajikuvat/kuvahtml/0carmea246.html" target="_blank">http://www.lintukuva.fi/lajikuvat/kuvahtml/0carmea246.html</a>Here's a summer Mealy Redpoll (as most pictures on the net seems to be from autumn and mid-winter):<a href="http://www.lintukuva.fi/lajikuvat/kuvahtml/3carmea224.html" target="_blank">http://www.lintukuva.fi/lajikuvat/kuvahtml/3carmea224.html</a></blockquote>

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