Monday, February 23, 2015

Mealy Redpoll ???

Took these pics of a Redpoll at Roils Head this pm. There were 2 birds present, the other one was a very bright pink male. This one seems to show features of Mealy Redpoll, any thoughts welcome.

2 comments:

David Sutcliffe said...

You did well to get the photo's in focus with all those branches in the way. Looks possible!

David T said...

Definitely Lesser Redpoll Nick & Dave, I was very lucky to observe many Redpoll at close quarters in my garden in 2009 & 2011 and had a number of Mealy Redpoll amongst them which I managed to photograph.

At this time of year bleaching and wear causes many Lessers to be misidentified as Mealies.

There is loads of research out there but unless you have had the good fortune to observe them close up they are not easy to id.

You have only to trawl through the photos on Birdguides to see how many are incorrectly identified.

This may sound smug talk to some folk but it isn't meant to be, honest!

I have posted a couple of Mealies for direct comparison with your Lesser.