AUGUST'S MYSTERY BIRD ANSWERS

With 18 entrants to this years penultimate round of the competition the race to be the champion for 2007 is still potentially wide open, well atleast for 2 entrants so perhaps it's not actually that wide but the remaining contributors maintain their support for the competition in true Manchester Birding style, just for the fun of it! Thanks to you all yet again ☺

Mystery Bird 21

Everyone atleast recognised this mystery bird as a warbler, although assigning it to a particular species wasn't that easy for some, pretty much as can often be in the field, or rather, car park☺ with four species of warblers offered as answers, Western Olivaceous, Olive-tree, Barred and Garden so lets take a look. Western Olivaceous can be easily ruled out on structure alone if nothing else as can Olive-tree Warbler, both have a longer, slimmer bill with an entirely pale lower mandible, invariably show something of a supercilium atleast infront of the eye whilst Western Olivaceous lacks the conspicuous pale edges of the wing coverts our mystery bird shows and Olive-tree has very long primaries, equalling the tertial length. The overall look and feel of this bird is undoubtedly that of a sylvia warbler (rather than a hippolais as the former two) and there are only two candidates that show such a shortish, blunt bill and featureless face, Garden and Barred Warbler. Closer inspection of the photograph reveals a rather pinkish based bill, pale edges to the wing coverts forming slight double wing bars, pale fringed tertials and dark 'chevrons' on the undertail coverts and vent leaving us in no doubt that the identification of this bird is correct with an immature Barred Warbler. Fourteen of the 18 entrants managed to correctly identify the bird, Andy Isherwood, Dave Broome, Henry Cook, Mark Rigby, Helen Garwood, John Frankland, Nick Green, Ian Bowker, Simon Johnson, Mike Baron, Craig Higson, Rob and Sonia Adderley, Nick Patel and Adam Davison and another photo of the same bird with the 'chevrons' slightly cleared appears below.

Immature Barred Warbler, North Cyprus, August 2006- Ian McKerchar

Mystery Bird 22

With only 11 correct answers to this mystery bird it was clearly more confusing than I had given it credit for and five species were offered in total. From what we can see this bird shows very obvious pale edges to the tertials and wing coverts, forming broad wing bars, is rather brownish on the upperparts and largely unstreaked, looks slightly creamy (with a hint of yellow?) on the underparts with no streaking on the flank, looks long legged (check out the length of the feathered tibia), has a very conspicuous long, pale supercilium (atleast over and behind the eye) and has an apparently longish, dark tail with very pale, whitish outer-tail feathers, so it would appear, atleast on the face of it, to be quite distinctive? Working through the species provided by the 18 entrants, Tawny Pipit (1 vote) although superficially very similar to our bird here (in adult plumage anyway) would never show wing bars so broad and conspicuous as this, the tail would not be so solidly black and the facial pattern even from this angle is all wrong for that species. Olive- backed Pipit (also 1 vote) would always show dark streaking along the flanks, would show a small pale 'spot' in the rear upper corner of the ear coverts and again lacks such conspicuous wing bars (amongst other features that don't fit), Citrine Wagtail (1 vote) is slightly closer but would have greyer upperparts and atleast fairly conspicuous pale continuing from the supercilium around the rear of the ear coverts to the sides of the throat with Water Pipit (5 votes) similarly lacking the huge wing bars, such a long supercilium and would either show some flank streaking, particularly in non-breeding plumage or a much greyer head in breeding plumage with both plumages never showing such creamy (yellow?) underparts. So, lets look again, plain brown, unstreaked upperparts, huge pale supercilium and edges to the remiges, long legs and very dark, blackish tail (except for whitish outer-tail feathers) combined with unstreaked pale, creamy underparts with just a hint of yellow, it simply has to be a juvenile Yellow Wagtail, of which Andy Isherwood, Dave Broome, Henry Cook, Mark Rigby, Simon Johnson, Mike Baron, Craig Higson, Rob and Sonia Adderley, Nick Patel, Nick Hilton and Adam Davison came to the same correct conclusion.

Juvenile Yellow Wagtail, Haughton Green Pool, Cheshire- John Tymon

Those with both answers correct were Andy Isherwood, Dave Broome, Henry Cook, Mark Rigby (on his maiden entry to the competition), Simon Johnson, Mike Baron, Craig Higson, Rob and Sonia Adderley, Nick Patel, and Adam Davison, well done to you all! As for the leader board there remains no change with the top 3 (Dave Broome, Rob and Sonia Adderley and Andy Isherwood) all receiving maximum points but with only one more round to go before the 2007 champion is crowned, Dave Broome will have to make a real mess of the next two mystery birds in order to loose his 100% record so far and allow Rob and Sonia Adderley, the only entrants in any position to challenge him, to steal away his title. Bring on the final round...