JUNE 2009'S MYSTERY BIRD ANSWERS

Back to normal, the intrepid Manchester Mystery Bird faithful turned out in fine style to what appeared to be yet another very challenging round. There were 28 entrants, much head-scratching, bewilderment, self doubt and of course moments of that 'eureka' feeling! So how did we all do? Well lets find out.

Mystery bird 11

I honestly didn't think this mystery bird was that difficult but then again that's what comes of knowing the answer before hand! Either way, many commented on it being the most challenging of atleast this year's mystery birds and it's tricky identification was justified by only 10 entrants managing it correctly. There were nine species offered as correct answers, so eyes down, look in, it's ID time!

Whitethroat received the most incorrect answers with 21% of the votes and it is admittedly quite a close call to exclude it from our possibilities. There are many similarities between it and our mystery bird, the greyish head, sharply demarcated white throat and white eyering but by the same token it's grey head would indicate it being a male Whitethroat were it to be one and it's lack of an extensively yellow lower mandible and that very strange partial white supercilium above and beyond the eye just don't add up.

Lesser Whitethroat continues the theme, and as our next highest incorrect answer it managed 11% of the votes. It's a little easier to eliminate though as it has all black legs and feet. 'Nuff said!

The sylvia warbler theme continued with our next candidate too and managing 8% of the votes was Subalpine Warbler. It can be omitted much as in the same way for Whitethroat, except that Subalpine also doesn't have a pure white throat in either adult plumages and therefore isn't our mystery bird.

The next four incorrect answers all managed to achieve 6 % of the votes each and were Blue-headed Wagtail, Spectacled Warbler, Garden Warbler and Water Pipit. Blue-headed Wagtail of course would have black legs and feet in any plumage or age ('nuff said!). Spectacled Warbler, continuing our sylvia theme yet again, is actually a decent enough choice, a male would show our mystery bird's combination of greyish head, darker lores, white throat, suffusion of colour to the breast and yellowish legs. It's not quite there though, the head isn't bluish/grey enough, the lores not black enough, the underparts not strongly and extensively coloured enough and to be fair it's jizz is all wrong for this bird. Also there's the small matter of that partial supercilium again too! Garden Warbler (clearly the members of the sylviidae family afforded the best fit for the majority of entrants!) is rather different than out mystery bird, it has a shorter, broader bill, a flatter crown, different colouration throughout the body and of course darker legs. Our final incorrect answer is Water Pipit and it's easy to see where this entry was headed with the non-breeding to breeding transitional plumage that species attains. The legs would never be quite so blatantly yellow though, I'd expect some remnants of malar/flank/breast streaks (on such a transitional bird) and the upper mandible atleast would be all black, unlike our mystery birds item which is paler basally.

The correct answer received 36% of the votes so take a look at the above photo again. It's jizz is rather unlike any warbler and a closer look at the bill will unearth yellowish corners to the gape, something we associate with juvenile birds. It's fair to say that this mystery bird was one of those 'you've seen it before or you haven't' ones and I have no doubt that every one of us has atleast seen adult birds of the species. You probably won't find this particular plumage in your favourite field guide either although you may find the similar first-winter plumage illustrated. So when tell you that the bird is in fact a juvenile Grey Wagtail, hopefully you'll take another look at the illustrations and it will all fall into place.

Those ten managing the correct answers were Rob and Sonia Adderley, Nick Godden, Caroline Clay, Dennis Latham, John Tymon, Paul Brown, John Frankland, Nick Patel, Henry Cook and Dave Broome.

Grey Wagtail, Pennington Flash, May 2009 (John Tymon)

Mystery Bird 12

Hmmm, it's a pipit! Everyone managed that far and to be fair, half the battle was won right there. Things got complicated in the fact that five species of pipit were submitted as answers, the same as for the number of sylvia warblers for mystery bird number 11 above! The photo hadn't (as with any photos I use in the competition) been altered in any way and as is always the case it's worth just analysing the image itself for what's going on in it. Clearly it was taken in very strong sunlight (recent weather excepted, some might say it wasn't in this country then ☺) and with that it must be taken into consideration when assessing the bird's colouration. I'll cut to the chase with this one and some will clearly be letting out a sigh of relief with that, so let's be firm and go straight for the jugular. Firstly, look at the bird's hind claw, hopefully we all agree it is short and at best just over half of the length of the hind toe. Sure it could have lost a bit (it's a long short but plausible) but it excludes Richard's Pipit (2 entries) which would also have a much different jizz (longer tail, bulkier etc), stronger supercilium, stronger bill and a lack of flank streaks which our bird doesn't. It too excludes Meadow Pipit (4 entries) which would also lack our mystery bird's contrast between the stronger breast streaks and much finer flank streaks (any lights on yet?). Pechora Pipit (2 entries) were provided as answers along with strong reasoning and a well thought out approach but when judging just how pale the mantle stripes are (and the entrants considered them white enough for Pechora) take a look at the outer tail feathers, breast and edges to the lesser coverts, They are clearly white but the mantle stripes I'm afraid aren't, coupled with Pechora's much stronger flank streaking and more prominent white greater covert wing bar, our mystery bird isn't a Pechora. Water Pipit (1 entry) fell next as an incorrect answer (doing well to appear as answers in both this months mystery birds) as it's flank streaking too would be much stronger, the supercilium stronger and more evident and legs never so fleshy pink. So that left our correct answer, doing well with 19 entries from those who recognised the combination of jizz, breast/flank streaking combination and short hind claw as that belonging to Tree Pipit.

The Tree Pipit in the mystery bird photo (above) was taken in Rochdale borough, spring 2009 by Simon Hitchen.

Left: Tree Pipit, Bahrain, spring 2009 (Adrian Drummond-Hill) and right: Meadow Pipit, Pennington Flash, spring 2009 (John Tymon)

It was indeed a challenging round but nevertheless, 8 entrants managed to correctly identify both species correctly. So 'give it up' for Rob and Sonia Adderley, Nick Godden, Caroline Clay, Dennis Latham, Paul Brown, Nick Patel, Henry Cook and Dave Broome.

Back on track, our reigning leader up to this point, North Ronaldsay's very own Paul Brown, managed both correctly this month and enforced his current dominance. But he's tripped up before (despite it being only the once!) and it could still be anyone's as the very busy autumn months force him into finding mega rares and the likes, of which another first for Britain could easily lead to the competition slipping his mind. "Never!", eh Paul...