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Post by steve pryor on Jan 5, 2008 8:25:15 GMT
Bookmarking. Will try and look tonight.
EDIT: I still have to look at these - just a reminder to myself!
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Post by steve pryor on Jan 2, 2008 9:08:40 GMT
Romy, Yes, confirmed (first photo) - Streptopelia tranquebarica humilis - a pair (adult male on the left). Actually the separation is not that tough - the tranquebarica is much smaller (20.5 - 23.0 cm.) against the bitorquata (30 - 33.0 cm.). The legs of bitorquata tend to reddish, that of the tranquebarica to greyish; the half-collar of tranquebarica is black, thinner, and with noticeable white borders both above and below (the collar of the Phil ranging race bitorquata dusumieri is not black - it is grey, broader, and lacks distinct white borders) and the mantle and wing coverts are more red-rufous in tranquebarica respect to a duller brown in bitorquata. Also the rump and back of tranquebarica are decidedly grey (or grey-bluish), while that of bitorquata is simply brownish.
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Post by steve pryor on Jan 2, 2008 8:48:10 GMT
Hi Romy, Yes, that is my take on it. A juvenile. This looks like the same bird for which a photo was sent through the WBCP list-server. However, I have made myself a mental note to interrogate Des on if he has better information about the morphology of juvenile ernesti. I think that ernesti always has a more hooded appearance even when juvenile, but I just don't have a good text description even with my raptor ID sources in this regard - maybe Des does.
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Post by steve pryor on Jan 2, 2008 9:30:57 GMT
Ding, An insidious question. The definition of what is juvenile and what is immature has space for interpretation unfortunately - can vary with the bird group. The Moorhen is a Rallidae (a Rail) - the young are usually nidifugous (don't hang around in the nest that much after hatching) and are precocial (i.e. the young hatch covered with down). For the Rails, the first plumage that replaces the down of the pullus (i.e., the hatchling) is the juvenile plumage. The plumage (given by a partial moult replacing certain feather zones of the juvenile plumage) but not giving the full adult definitive colorations, is considered to be the "immature" plumage. In this species, another plumage comes into play - usually called the "sub-adult" or "first breeding" plumage, before the definitive adult plumage is assumed. I do have descriptions for all of these plumages, but they are just too lengthy to type in. This above discourse must be understood to apply only to this species (or to most Rallidae), and not to other bird groups.
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Post by steve pryor on Jan 1, 2008 16:33:33 GMT
Yes, female Anas querquedula (Garganey). Romy has some from Candaba 2006 somewhere on his site - identical.
No, not Little Heron - they are all Nycticorax nycticorax in various juvenile and immature plumages.
Yes, Grey Heron.
Yes, adult male Northern Shoveler,
The white Egret is not a Great Egret. It is an Intermediate Egret.
Not a Black Bittern. I wish I had another angle, in any case, for me an adult male Yellow Bittern.
Yes, Purple Heron.
Yes, immature Common Moorhen.
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Post by steve pryor on Jan 1, 2008 16:22:16 GMT
Ding, Don't worry about being "flippant". The enjoyment of birds in habitat is supposed to be one that fills us with a sense of discovery and wonderment, as if we were still children. I tend to give serious answers only because somebody has to field the serious questions, that also others may be asking themselves, even if they happen to be couched in an apparently mischevious manner. I can be flip too, it is enough to see one of my comments for Bobby's Greater Painted-snipe on flickr!
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Post by steve pryor on Jan 1, 2008 10:24:46 GMT
Ding, Will go through the photos later today - do you have another angle (in particular of the head on profile of the white Egretta)? If I have to judge it from only this one photo - I am orienting towards Mesophoyx (another name for Intermediate Egret). The bill looks short - I can't discern that the gape line extends in back of the posterior margin of the eye!
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Post by steve pryor on Jan 1, 2008 10:17:47 GMT
Hi Guys, Don't worry if you don't immediately understand "amelanism". It is just a better term for what most people call, though somewhat improperly, leucism.
Some day I will give perhaps a more exhaustive explication of pigment aberrations in birds. Suffice to say that there is more than one principal pigment system at work in the coloration of bird plumages and bare parts, unlike humans where everything mostly comes down to one pigment system - i.e., that controlling the expression of melanin.
There exists a recent scientific treatment regarding the terminology to be used for birds. By this treatment, the term amelanistic is to be preferred to leucistic (or the even worse - partially albinistic). The term "amelanistic" simply means that for a certain zone of the body (usually localized) that the pigment system regulating the expression of melanin is not working, and give zones that are whitish, or yellowish, and in any case not with the normal coloration. In this bird, we see this condition around the head. It is obviously a Northern Shoveler - the beak is unmistakeable (exception made for other Shovelers, but here we are in Phils and only one ranges).
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Post by steve pryor on Dec 31, 2007 8:32:00 GMT
Hi Bobby, Yes, you are right - the male Pygmy. As I said in another thread somewhere (or at least I think that I said it), when on Cebu, as soon as you see this type of bill (when looking at Flowerpeckers obviously), then you have one of two species; either pygmaeum, or trigonostigma. When you see a pug-nosed kind of thicker and shorter bill, then you can start thinking about other FP's (including the Cebu FP).
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Post by steve pryor on Jan 1, 2008 16:11:39 GMT
GREAT GREAT NEWS! CONGRATS MAM! question: where could it possibly came from?Malaysia/Taiwan? etc.thanks. The probable origin? I would give you 100-1 odds that this bird is from the southeast Chinese population of the nominate race leucorodia, that habitually winters in Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong. Actually I would make the odds about a million to 1!
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Post by steve pryor on Dec 30, 2007 19:39:32 GMT
Tina, Yes, unmistakeable. Platalea leucorodia. Send the news through the WBCP list-server, and also send it to the Records Committee! Nice find!
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Post by steve pryor on Jan 2, 2008 16:33:48 GMT
Hi Tina, The Cockatoo: Yes, I agree with those seeing this as Cacatua alba. C. haematuropygia can be eliminated because of the length of the crest (too much crest in this bird), because of the color of the bill and the sere, among other things. Another escape!!!
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Post by steve pryor on Dec 28, 2007 6:45:04 GMT
Hi Guys, Will look later today. At first glance, the Pipit does look hodgsoni. Will put the Cacatua under scrutiny - too bad only one photo.
Bookmarking - I still have to look at this Cacatua.
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Post by steve pryor on Dec 19, 2007 9:29:02 GMT
Hi Bobby - will review the first photos again once I have my Harrap (the monograph for Tits) - unfortunately I have to just use my memory until my home ISP is back.
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Post by steve pryor on Dec 18, 2007 11:32:23 GMT
It is an adult male for me - the female adult rather than black are kind of a smoky charcoaly blackish and the immatures even more so.
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Post by steve pryor on Dec 16, 2007 15:34:59 GMT
Hi Bobby, Have now had time to look. You are right. Both the leschenaultii, and the mongolus can be eliminated by, among other things, the presence of the blackish half-collar. The confusion species with this bird, is the peronii. However, the peronii has legs that get as dark only as much as a sort of light greyish-black. The legs of this bird are decidedly black. The bill is of little help though that of peronii is generally considered shorter, thicker at the base and tapering respect to alexandrinus, there are individual variations both in this general shape and in total bill length and there might be a certain possible individual overlap in total bill length. This bird is certainly a non-breeding alexandrinus, almost surely an adult male non-breeding judging from the visibly blackish cast of the incomplete pectoral band. A note: for some reason the KG decided to illustrate only the nominate race alexandrinus (perhaps because it is that bird which is found on Luzon). This bird which is race dealbatus has respect to the nominate race alexandrinus - a longer bill, and in many cases, as here, the conspicuous blackish (or brownish) lores are not so evident.
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Post by steve pryor on Dec 14, 2007 8:35:29 GMT
Yes, as I have stated many times - Shorebirds are certainly not my forte, but I can usually dice out the Charadrius. Will look tonight.
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Post by steve pryor on Dec 13, 2007 17:03:40 GMT
Hi Bobby,
Philippine Pygmy-Woodpecker aka Philippine Woodpecker - same thing. A lot of the smaller Dendrocopos WP's are called "Pygmy-Woodpecker".
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Post by steve pryor on Dec 13, 2007 14:10:39 GMT
Bobby, No, not ramsayi. Cebu has the nominate race maculatus. A note on ramsayi: by many thought to be a good species (apparently more closely related to the Sulawesi Woodpecker (Dendrocopos temminckii) than to maculatus. The last that I had heard Des Allen looked for ramsayi in the late 90's on Tawi - couldn't find it. If ramsayi still exists, it is just barely hanging on... Goodness gracious - what a lot of red on the head. Have not seen that, but then this is the first nominate race maculatus that I have seen. The oft-seen validirostris on Luzon - well, you have to be real lucky to see just a red dot. Good job! and yes, only males have any red at all!
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Post by steve pryor on Dec 13, 2007 17:31:50 GMT
Romy, Yes, a female Cinnamon Bittern.
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