DECEMBER 2009'S MYSTERY BIRD ANSWERS

As if to show your support for the competition, a magnificent 27 entrants joined in this month. Thank you all. But could North Ronaldsay's finest, Paul Brown, be caught at the top of the charts? Had the winter's excess of odd looking Canada Geese and Whiskey thwarted his winning streak? Could there be an upset? Well eyes down and look in for a full house whilst we peruse the answers and see!

Mystery Bird 23

Seventy four percent of all entrants managed to correctly identify this creature but incorrect answers involved six species, highlighting the head-scratching perplexity of this mystery bird. Black Redstart, Storm Petrel, Dipper, Swallow and Ring Ouzel all received single votes and Blackbird managed two, but unfortunately all of them were wrong. For me, a couple of features really stand out as being extraordinary in our mystery bird, those being the extremely short secondaries and incredibly long primary coverts, the latter of which would lend us to presume that the primaries themselves are too, incredibly long. The overall hue of the bird's plumage is mid-brown with no apparent distinctive markings or features. So, a mid-brown bird of an apparent plain and uniform nature (on the upperparts, head and upperwing atleast) with incredibly long primaries and extremely short secondaries, any wiser? That this particular bird caused some degree of confusion is no real surprise as it is a species not often seen in the hand or indeed this close up by the vast majority of birders but the unique structure of the wings and it's overall colouration lead us to identify it as a member of the swift family. With that, once we take into consideration it's mid-brown colouration, lacking the more contrasty and paler hues of Pallid Swift (and it's paler secondaries) and lack of any white, including what we can see of the lower belly, then we can correctly identify this bird as a Common Swift. As many entrants also managed, this bird can also be aged as a juvenile thanks to it's slightly paler than adult colouration and the patent pale edges to some of the wing coverts and remiges.

This unfortunate bird was found grounded in Stretford and handed over to the RSPCA.

Juvenile Common Swift, Stretford, August 2009 (Paul Heaton)

More photos of the same bird can be found below:

Mystery Bird 24

What seemed, for all intents and purposes, to be a relatively straightforward identification actually turned out to be a real stinker as only 44% of all entries were correct for this mystery bird. All entries managed it down to being a raptor and only three species, all in juvenile plumage (due to the rather rufous edges to the feathers of the upperparts), were thought close enough of a match, Hobby, Merlin and Red-footed Falcon. Pairing it down from these three to our correct answer is in fact easier that one might expect as three features alone scream out it's correct identity. The first are the flank markings which are distinctly broad and almost diamond shaped. Second are the conspicuous quite bright rufous markings (notches) along the primaries. Thirdly and perhaps most conspicuous of all are the primaries themselves, or rather their length, as they are considerably short, clearly falling well short of the tail. These three features eliminate both Hobby and Red-footed Falcon as their flanks markings are much narrower and are clearly streaks, their primaries are uniformly dark, lacking in paler notches and are distinctively long, reaching the tail tip in Red-footed Falcon and falling just beyond in Hobby. That leaves our correct answer, of a wonderful juvenile Merlin.

Those 44% correctly identifying this mystery bird were Nick Godden, Mike Howard, Mike Chorley, Caroline Clay, Henry Cook, Peter Rolph, Michel Rogg, Nick Green, John Frankland, Paul Brown, Pauline Greenhalgh and Dave Broome.

Merlin, Leighton Moss, Lancashire, November 2009 (Dennis Atherton)

Only ten managed both species correctly, so a round of applause for them. Nick Godden, Mike Chorley, Henry Cook, Caroline Clay, Peter Rolph, Michel Rogg, John Frankland, Paul Brown, Pauline Greenhalgh and Dave Broome.

With that we come to the end of this year's competition and our conclusion as to who takes the title as 2009 Manchester Mystery Bird Champion. Looking on the list of above names we can clearly see ex-county birder and Pennington Flash 'moocher' now exiled in North Ronaldsay (poor soul!) Paul Brown and with it he makes his position as numero uno unassailable. So well done Paul, no first for Britain found this year but atleast you won the finest monthly mystery bird competition on the internet and with it a nice copy of the 2008 annual county bird report so you can see what you're missing. Read it and weep...

Thanks to everyone who took part during the year, whether that was one round or all twelve. Your participation was genuinely appreciated, let's hope it continues into next year, for yes, the beast is alive. Manchester Mystery Birds will live and breath into 2010!