NOVEMBER'S MYSTERY BIRDS ANSWERS

A total of 13 entrants completed this months round of the mystery bird competition and their support for the website and enthusiasm for joining in is greatly appreciated again, whatever the result of their entries!

Mystery bird no.3

On the face of it there appears not to be much to go on given this view of an eye and the top of a head, but 10 entrants still managed to guess the mystery bird correctly, with 3 other species suggested by the other entrants. The most obvious feature on display is of course the large eye with it's pale yellow iris and black pupil, giving rise to suggestions of Little Owl, Hen Harrier, Stone Curlew and Yellowhammer. Whilst Yellowhammer shows a completely black iris and so is easily discounted (although it's easy for me to say as I knew the mystery bird's identity!), the other three species fit the bill altogether better, with each showing the yellow iris, some pale feathering around the eye, a black eyering and a brownish crown, so identifying the mystery bird correctly will be a subtle affair, relying on a correct full suite of characters on show and the shape of the crown from what we can see. Little Owl is the first species to go, as that species, although subtle, shows a crown spotted with white, more prominent white eyebrow and the position of the eyes on the head would be farther forward as on Little Owl the eyes are closer together. Female Hen Harrier shows a crown colouration and patternation similar to the mystery bird, a small amount of pale above the eye and a similar coloured iris so we seem to be getting closer, but unfortunately a female Hen Harrier would also show small amounts of black or dark before and after the eye, like a very short eye stripe and the pale above the eye is actually a very short supercilium, whereas the mystery birds appears to curve around the eye more, with little or no black eyestripe, also the crown shape of Hen Harrier might be expected to be slightly flatter. This leaves us with Stone Curlew, which is exactly what the mystery bird is, with a slightly better image included below, although this is a different individual as the bird above, after attempting to hide from me for several minutes decided to fly off before I could getter a better shot!

Stone Curlew, Korucam Burnu, Northern Cyprus- Ian McKerchar

Mystery bird no.4

As one entrant put it "another headless one, I'm beginning to sense a theme here" and a quick check of my mystery bird photos to come does indeed contain several 'headless' birds, but there is no theme (honest!), just that 'headless' shots make identification more difficult and I seem to manage to take a lot of 'em! Most entrants found this mystery bird rather difficult with 6 species suggested, two gulls, two terns and two waders, so lets look at exactly what we can make out. It appears to be a bird (a good start!) facing away from us, whilst preening it's chest so we cannot make out any head details, but initially it appears very obviously black and white in colouration. The wings appear largely black (with very long primaries) as do the scapulars (although with nice, narrow pale fringes), although the latter seems to have an obvious whitish area between them and a very black looking mantle and perhaps hind neck. This short description immediately cancels out all of the incorrect suggestions, which were Lapwing (short primaries, greenish back with no white and rusty undertail coverts lacking), Red-necked Phalarope (again, shortish primaries, adults wouldn't show such clearly black scapulars and juveniles have bright almost golden wing feather edges and the black on the mantle and rear neck would never be so extensive), Sabine's Gull (juvenile's wing coverts, scapulars, mantle and rear neck brownish, not black and without any white on the mantle), Common Tern (juvenile with gingery brown scapulars and mantle, grey wing coverts and grey, not black primaries) and Black Tern (wing coverts, scapulars and mantle never so clearly black, infact the wing coverts would be greyish with no white on mantle). The former description of the mystery bird does indeed fit one species perfectly, which 6 entrants managed to correctly identify and that is juvenile Little Gull. A much better image of the same bird appears below (along with a Black-headed Gull), things seem so much clearer now!

Juvenile Little Gull, Rumworth Lodge, Greater Manchester- Ian McKerchar

All entrants did very well and thanks to them all again for joining in the fun, if you haven't had a go yet then join in, incorrect entries are not published, nor recorded and are for my eyes only. That said, those with both correct answers are recorded and in this round Andy Isherwood, Tony Coatsworth, Dave Broome, Richard Else and Tom McKinney all managed to identify both mystery birds correctly. Andy Isherwood, Tony Coatsworth, Dave Broome and Tom McKinney are now in the lead, with 4 correct answers.