Ring Ouzel Autumn passage 2013.
31st October 2013
At last the Ring Ouzels are on return passage from Scandinavia, they have appeared at a traditional site this week. I was there at first light this morning to try and see these lovely but very shy birds.
Out of interest the female bird at the top of the Rowan looking left is the same bird that is in the middle of the Rowan in another image. Both marked (1). It is quite remarkable what tricks light can play, the bird in the middle of the tree appears much darker, but look at the blemishes below its left eye and they are exactly the same in both images!
I'm sure many darker females get mistaken for males, but the males, as shown in the images on the site, are a much more sooty black with a snowy white crescent with no mottling on it. Females are not sooty black, they are varying colours, from a greyish black to a chocolate brown and they have a duller more mottled crescent.
Sometimes they are not so straight forward as they seem!
I am no expert by any means but this is the only criteria I can use with any confidence.
Please see UK Birds, Ring Ouzels.
Out of interest the female bird at the top of the Rowan looking left is the same bird that is in the middle of the Rowan in another image. Both marked (1). It is quite remarkable what tricks light can play, the bird in the middle of the tree appears much darker, but look at the blemishes below its left eye and they are exactly the same in both images!
I'm sure many darker females get mistaken for males, but the males, as shown in the images on the site, are a much more sooty black with a snowy white crescent with no mottling on it. Females are not sooty black, they are varying colours, from a greyish black to a chocolate brown and they have a duller more mottled crescent.
Sometimes they are not so straight forward as they seem!
I am no expert by any means but this is the only criteria I can use with any confidence.
Please see UK Birds, Ring Ouzels.