Answers and solutions

BIRD 1

This is a long-necked, long-billed bird with pointed wings and feet set well back. It has the look of a swimming/diving bird, such as a grebe, diver, cormorant or duck. The bright red bill and red feet straight away rule out all but the ducks. What sort of diving duck has a long, narrow, bright-red bill, a ginger-brown head and largely whitish underparts? The bill and head and that slim shape should have narrowed the options down in your mind to one of the mergansers, or sawbills: Goosander or Red-breasted Merganser. ‘Female’ types are similar for both species, but Rbms have much slimmer upturned bills than Goosanders, and the transition between the head colour and neck colour’s blurred. This is a female type Red-breasted Merganser.

KEY FEATURES †Duck shape †Ginger head fades into neck colour †Narrow, upturned, red bill †Red feet set well back on body

BIRD 2

There is a whole flock of them! The birds in this photograph certainly all look to be of the same type, artistically flying past a half-moon. Furthermore, they appear to be geese: small head, long neck, long, pointed wings. The other thing that immediately strikes the eye is that these are dark geese, almost black; but with strikingly white rear ends. The darkness and contrast is typical of so-called ‘black’ geese of the genus Branta. And that high contrast of the black front end and white rear is typical of our smallest regular Branta, the Brent Goose. With a close up look at the photo, you should be able to see that there is no white on or near the face but a white, partial ‘necklace’, typical of Brents. The dark bellies should lead you to dark-bellied Brent Goose.

KEY FEATURES †Dark at the front end, white at the rear †Head and neck largely black †Small 'necklace' of white on neck †Dark-bellies help assign the geese to subspecies

BIRD 3

Here is a dark bird flying quite low over a grey sea. The shape and proportions suggest immediately that this is a duck, and a pretty black duck at that. Blackish ducks flying over the sea should stimulate your bird ID instincts to suggest that this is a scoter of some type. But Common and (rare) Surf Scoters have black wings and this bird has a clear white panel on trailing edge of the inner wing (the secondary feathers). This in itself should lead you to Velvet Scoter (or one of the incredibly rare close relatives of the Velvet Scoter, the White-winged Scoters). There is a white spot behind the eye and a pale spot on the lores, confirming that initial instinct. The gentle slightly concave bill confirms this is a female type Velvet Scoter.

KEY FEATURES †Clearly a blackish duck †Obvious white panel in secondaries of wing †Pale spots in front of and behind eye †Slightly concave bill

BIRD 4

Just for a change, we have two birds in this photograph; and they appear to be two different birds, as the rear bird has a red bill and the one in the foreground a yellow bill. That rear bird has a short, thin red bill and a black cheek spot, a pale back and wings with black in the primaries. It looks like a very typical adult Black-headed Gull. The close bird may be larger, but it is hard to judge size. Its back and wings are slightly darker grey and the long wings have black primaries with well defined white spots. The head is streaked (suggesting a winter bird) and the eye dark. The expression is soft and the bill too small for a large white-headed gull (eg a Herring). Here we have a very typical adult Common Gull with a Black-headed Gull.

KEY FEATURES †Small, pale gull with fine red bill and black cheek spot †Larger, slightly darker gull in foreground †Fine yellow bill and dark eye †Long wings

BIRD 5

This pale bird does not look like your typical sea duck; it is a bit skinny, too long-necked, a bit too pale, and the bill is long, slim (almost dagger-shaped) and, frankly, pink. But if not a duck, what is it? It is too long-necked for an auk, which narrows it down to a diver or a grebe. But there aren’t any divers with a pink bill, and the bird looks too slim and long-necked for one anyhow, and is that not a slight crest on the back of its head? Surely, it is a grebe. A grebe with a pink bill and with white above the eye and above the dark lores can only be a Great Crested Grebe, which can be a surprisingly common bird on the sea in the winter.

KEY FEATURES †Pale, grebe-shaped, long-necked water bird †Hint of crest at back of head †Pink bill †White above dark lores and above eye BIRD 6 This bird is obviously a wader. But, I am sorry, there are no points for that. It is a dumpy wader, which may lead you to think of the dumpy sandpiper genus Calidris (as opposed to the slim sandpiper genus, Tringa). This inference would be backed up by the slightly down-curved, Dunlin-like bill (most Tringa species have straight or slightly upturned bills). But the yellow-orange base to the bill and the similarly coloured legs are not typical for a calidrid (most have black bills and black legs). However, there is one often forgotten exception. Further clues come from the darkish grey colour (almost like the wader equivalent of a Rock Pipit) and the rocky habitat. This lovely wader is a typical Purple Sandpiper, a fairly scarce visitor to rocky shores.

KEY FEATURES †Chunky, rounded wader †Mid to dark grey plumage, with a hint of ‘purple’ †Slightly downcurved bill †Pale orange legs and bill base

Pale spots on cheek and lores Blackish duck White secondary panel

Red feet set well back Orange-brown head ‘fades into neck’ Thin, upturned red bill

Black front, white rear Dark belly Wholly dark head

‘Dark’ grey plumage Typically rounded Calidris sandpiper Yellow-orange legs

Long wings, mid-grey back Thin red bill, black cheek spot Fine, yellow bill

Grebe shape, including ‘crest’ White above eye Pink bill