Interesting today , I was watching the Waxwings at Lane Head Brighouse , after half an hour or so a flock of Redwing joined them.One of these birds was very dark and immediately stood out , I thought of Icelandic Redwing and tried to remember the main id features, super seemed bright and the breast streaks seemed to cover most of the body its back was also dark . I did not get the dark undertail coverts so will have to leave it for now, but its worth taking a close look at he large number of Redwings feeding along side the large numbers of Waxwings. Any photos would be a help
The above pics taken today on Pellon lane by Andy Huyton .The different undertail markings are clear on these two shots. I also went back today to see if i could relocate the bird i saw yesterday it was not present but I did notice that one of the birds present showed the same pattern as the pic above. ?Strongly marked undertail coverts seem to be a feature of Icelndic birds
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Have put a link on my blog Andy. Click on 2 in a bush and scroll down to his popular posts
Coburni v iliacus. Amazing comparison pics.
Another excellent source is the birding frontiers challenge series winter edition. Written by the late great Martin Garner, guaranteed to have you looking twice at those "common " winter birds. Northern bullfinch anyone?
I am not sure this one is icelandic, a lot of the ones at lane head today showed markings on the undertail.? The first one I had was dark almost black and think smudges around the spots.All these look like normal Redwing with a few dark undertail coverts.? Are there lots of Icelandic .? or is there a lot of overlap.??
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