Wheatear, Great Orme, North Wales 22/10/2023 (2 Viewers)

[ColinD]

I'd be interested in any thoughts on this wheatear I photographed on the Great Orme yesterday. Before I begin though, apologies for the blue tint, my camera was playing up with the white balance. I'm not sure if I can fix it now.

The bird was on the limestone pavement at the northern tip of the Orme. It was quite an interesting bird from the start I thought, it seems to have really pale underparts, black lores, darkish ear coverts and a very distinct white supercilium either side of the eye. It was also a very upright bird. My first thought was juvenile Greenland wheatear, but the combination of these features make me wonder if it might actually be an adult.

Any comments?

Thanks

Colin

 

[Butty]

Regular post-autumn-moult male northern wheatear. Greenland birds are held these days not to be readily separable AFAIK. In the old days, anything that looked big and upright and perched on things was held to be from Greenland.