A comment on yesterday's post from James had me hunting for more new info on 'Northern' Bullfinches.
The more I read, the more features I think yesterday's bird displayed, to some degree. Even a feature or two I didnt know about...
Main Points are -
Size. A large long bodied bird.
Colour. Pale silvery mantle and clean rose pink breast.
Wings. The bar on the greater coverts is huge. Like nothing I've seen before, not even on Northern Bullfinch in the hand. A tiny white 'thorn' is visible at the top of the spike, and the black, sawtooths into the white, but ever so slightly in this image due to distance from the bird. There are some whitish in the primaries, but a look at our own birds can show some of this too. Click on image for a larger view.
As soon as I saw this bird eating hawthorn buds it looked very impressive and even had the 'presence' alluded to by some observers.
So, no call, not trapped and measured but I still put this bird in the 'from over the watter' category...
Cheers James....Some blogs are great at pointing you in the direction of up to date info aren't they....
3 comments:
Hi Stewart, hope the blogs were useful although what the features mean?? Im sure when Bullfinch taxonomy settles down you will have a better idea of where the bird comes from. I hope you didnt think I was casting aspersions on your bird being 'Northern'.
Regards
James
Never did see that huge Bully at the tip again but I presumed it went into the gardens at Stobswood when the snow returned. It was a female but two regular males looked small in comparison but the main feature from behind was the broad band of white in the greater coverts but it was calling and you could clearly hear the fine high pitch piping calls.
James - Yes they were very useful James, cheers. I somethimes think that people cannot see the wood for the trees though. Often people squint at minutiae when all you can do is stand back and a distinctive race or species simply stands out from the crowd. Bullies are a 'standard' species with very little variation between individuals like Blue Tits for example so something different stands out like a sore thumb. Some species though are much more variable, such as Redpolls and Pipits...and I wont even mention Gulls...
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