Tag
Plumage: how a bird changes through the year, and why it matters
Feathers wear out and get replaced, and for part of the year a bird therefore does not look like its picture in the book. Eclipse plumage, moult timing, ageing and the identification problems all three create.
- Eclipse plumage in ducks: moult and identification
For a few weeks each summer a drake wears the duck's colours and cannot fly. What eclipse plumage is, when it happens, and how identification survives it.
- Mallard hybrids: identification of domestic and feral crosses
Mallard hybrids, and the birds mistaken for them. How to tell a true cross from a feral domestic duck, and which field marks still mean something.
- Manky mallard: identification of domestic and feral park ducks
The odd ducks on every town lake have a name. What a manky mallard is, where the domestic genes come from, and how to tell one from a genuine hybrid.
- First-winter Mediterranean Gull: separating it from Black-headed
In its first winter a Mediterranean Gull is neither white-winged nor obvious. The mask, the bill, the wing pattern, and the one feature that settles it.