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Post by Ding Carpio on Jan 1, 2008 7:41:37 GMT
Never good at identifying lifers straight off KG so need help on these. This white headed duck was pointed out to us by Cel. It looks like it has a shoveler's beak but can't find a white headed one in KG. Here, it sits beside what I think is a Northern Shoveler. ------------------------------ Female Garganey (Anas querquedula) Was thinking of printing myself a bookmarker with that orientation ------------------------------ Grey Heron ------------------------------ Northern Shoveler - adult male ------------------------------ Intermediate Egret ------------------------------ Yellow Bittern - adult male ------------------------------ Black-crowned Night-Heron - immature plumages ----------------------------- Purple Heron ----------------------------- Immature Common Moorhen
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Post by tina mallari on Jan 1, 2008 8:52:15 GMT
WOW Ding You've got a lot of Fantastic captures of Birds in Flight over here !!!! Congratulations on the many, many wonderful captures. I like the bookmark idea - what a fantastic shot !!!! This is Steve's answer to Alex Loinaz's query about the same white headed duck ... "The Duck: it appears to me to be an Anas clypeata affected by amelanism"
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Post by Ding Carpio on Jan 1, 2008 9:01:12 GMT
This is Steve's answer to Alex Loinaz's query about the same white headed duck ... "The Duck: it appears to me to be an Anas clypeata affected by amelanism" Silly me, now why didn't I figure that out! Ok. Gotta go now and google amelanism. Thanks!
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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 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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gpx4
Munia
Posts: 22
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Post by gpx4 on Jan 1, 2008 10:39:32 GMT
Wow, these are great captures. Ding Carpio was this shot all in one day?
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Post by Ding Carpio on Jan 1, 2008 11:28:25 GMT
Sorry, Steve. That was the only shot. It was a hurried one. I think I now get what you mean about feather pigmentation. I guess in every creature, there are aberrations. I recall I once asked you about a Large-billed Crow with a yellow chin. That was probably a case of amelanism, too. Thanks for taking time to enlighten my usually flippant and ignorant mind. Really appreciate it. 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 Ding Carpio on Jan 1, 2008 12:02:44 GMT
All in one morning, actually. It is very possible to spend a day in Candaba and end up with hundreds of keepers. Tough part though is getting full-frame shots. The birds are quite a distance from you and no way of stalking nearer unless you have JP's floating hide. Wow, these are great captures. Ding Carpio was this shot all in one day?
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Post by tjparpan on Jan 1, 2008 14:20:15 GMT
Quite a harvest Ding! I'm itching for a Candaba trip!
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Post by Romy Ocon on Jan 1, 2008 14:48:29 GMT
A large basketful of nice captures on your maiden Candaba sortie, Ding.... congrats!
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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 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 Ding Carpio on Jan 1, 2008 21:55:56 GMT
Thanks, Steve.
When does one use "Immature" and when does on use "Juvenile"?
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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 Manny Illana on Jan 2, 2008 11:35:39 GMT
hey ding, it was nice to meet you over in candaba. didn't know it was your first time to go there like me. anyways.... here's your pic as you were nonchalantly strolling below the cormorant... hehe hope you like it.
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Post by Ding Carpio on Jan 2, 2008 12:14:45 GMT
I like it. But you shot the more uninteresting subject! ;D here's your pic as you were nonchalantly strolling below the cormorant... hehe
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