juvenile Redpoll SW-Finland (1 Viewer)

[mäkpe]

Hi,

breeding Redpolls are quite a new thing in southern Finland. AFAIK it's not clear whether the breeding birds here are all Lesser or both Lesser and Mealy.
I've seen very few juveniles but couple of days ago there was a party of six in my backyard. I'm wondering if they're Lesser or Mealy.
I think they're Lesser because of brown wingbars and ear-coverts but i couldn't find reasonable pics of Mealys in similar plumage.

Thanks and sorry about the picture quality...

 

[abi107]

Hello Makpe

I'm no expert and have only seen lesser redpolls. The birds in your photos seem more heavily built, to have brighter wingbars and overall to be paler than the juvenile lesser redpolls in my garden, so perhaps they are mealy redpolls??

 

[mäkpe]

Thanks for your response, that might well be the case. It would still be nice to see some pics of (other) juv Mealys.

 

[teunissen]

I won't be surprised if these were intermediates.

During a large irruption in 2005 we got in the Netherlands typical Mealy. They were very pale and large. In 2008 we had another smaller irruption. These birds were different. Much browner and a little smaller. They were not the typical cabarets which we also caught, but they were no typical flammeas either.