ringtail harrier, transilvania (1 Viewer)

[lou salomon]

http://www.treknature.com/gallery/Europe/Romania/East/Harghita/photo194564.htm

some romanian birders have insisted this was a pallid harrier. i see a montague's. what's your view? and why, please.

 

[stenura]

Hi Lou
You're right. The image shows a perfect adult female Montague's. Facial pattern, secondary pattern, axillars etc gives you all you need to know.

/Magnus

Edit:
Sorry, I just realized you needed a better argumentation. There are actually lots of reasons to choose from, but some easy pointers are mentioned above. The bird has a lot of white surrounding the eye, lacks the contrasting pattern with pale collar/blackish nape, the secondaries are basically white with blackish barring and the axillares shows a coarse pattern with large white/red markings. Pallid Harriers more or less never shows anything close to this. Let alone the combination...

 

[Jose Gomez Aparicio]

IMHO underwing coberts and secondaries are not dark enought for an adult female Pallid Harrier.

 

[Biancone]

If I'd seen this bird this well, I'd have called it Montague's. No distinct pale collar, secondaries without 'shadowing' and with broad pale subterminal band.

 

[jascha777]

Monty`s for me.
Mark

 

[lou salomon]

when was it on rombird, cristian, do you remember?

 

[Cristian Mihai]

Hi lou,

I really don't, but I suppose it will be easy to search it...
BTW, the pic was taken in May 2007.
Do you have Szilard's opinion about this bird?

 

[tittletattler]

http://www.treknature.com/gallery/Europe/Romania/East/Harghita/photo194564.htm

some romanian birders have insisted this was a pallid harrier. i see a montague's. what's your view? and why, please.

Harriers can be difficult. But this one isn't.

There's a whole list of reasons why this is an adult Montagu's Harrier.

• No collar
• Dense streaking on the underparts which extends quite far down the body
• Ink-tipped primaries
• Deeper breast and then thinning, rakish body (but this bird is perhaps quite big bodied for a Montagu's)
• Hand is longer than the arm (diagnostic)
• Evenly spaced dark and pale bars on secondaries (also proves age)
• Barred Axillaries (diagnostic)

Also have a look at the facial pattern as that may help (I've forgotten the difference and the book is all the way upstairs!)

Superb photo by the way!

Cheers,

Andy.

 

[lou salomon]

i'll pm you cristian,

thanks magnus, jose, biancone, mark and andy. that about sums up what i saw in this bird. thought i'd get senile...:gh:
one feature that i guess hasn't been named, is the dark trailing edge to inner primaries in this monty while adult fem. pallid has a more or less pale inner hand edge.

B