Kingfisher21
Well-known member
Hello,
Is it possible to age this Little Grebe? I photographed this bird in Sussex yesterday, more views are available.
There's a resident pair on the small pond and they raised four young this year. All of them seemed to disappear several weeks ago and yesterday, this bird swam out of the reeds.
So I'm just curious whether it is one of the adults, now in winter plumage, or one of the youngsters after its post-juvenile moult.
Would the iris be a duller brown if the bird was indeed a first winter bird? Would the outermost primaries be narrower? Or can I see remnants of a youngster's 'stripes' near the bill?
Thank you for your help.
Is it possible to age this Little Grebe? I photographed this bird in Sussex yesterday, more views are available.
There's a resident pair on the small pond and they raised four young this year. All of them seemed to disappear several weeks ago and yesterday, this bird swam out of the reeds.
So I'm just curious whether it is one of the adults, now in winter plumage, or one of the youngsters after its post-juvenile moult.
Would the iris be a duller brown if the bird was indeed a first winter bird? Would the outermost primaries be narrower? Or can I see remnants of a youngster's 'stripes' near the bill?
Thank you for your help.
