White gull?

Despite being a keen birder, I still have trouble identifying all the species I see, and so I resort to taking a picture of them and try to ID them later. I included some photographs which have me questioning myself, including a peculiar gull. Please help identify them.

David Eaves, Wigan, Greater Manchester

Q

Hello, David, it seems you have a very sensible approach to ID. If you have a record shot, then you can always refer to it later. The photographs you attached include a Chiffchaff, a male Blackcap and a male Yellowhammer. However, the bird you label as a ‘gull’ has fooled you, perhaps, by being on the edge of some water, and so being a tad ‘out of context’. This bird is genetically a Rock Dove, but with an appearance altered by domestication, perhaps over many centuries. It is a white ‘ornamental’ dove, or perhaps a racing pigeon. It seems a little too white to be a typical Feral Pigeon, as some of that whiteness would probably have been lost through genetic mixing. Sadly, it is not a pure white gull.

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primaries, I’m pretty certain it’s a Willow Warbler over it’s similar looking cousin, the Chiffchaff, but would be grateful for your confirmation on what this bird is. Peter Patching, Evesham, Worcestershire.

Hi Peter, your bird, to us, appears to be a Chiffchaff. Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs are very similar, of course, but the length of the primaries (the outer most flight feathers), projecting beyond the other wing feathers is a little too short for a Willow Warbler. The poorly defined supercilium ( pale ‘eyebrow’) but clean eye-ring is pro-Chiffchaff, also; though the legs are ambiguous in colour. Finally, the March date would generally point to Chiffchaff (though this is purely circumstantial evidence).

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The short and sweet answer, Seymour, is that this is indeed a domestic Muscovy Duck, with a face that perhaps only a mother Muscovy Duck could love!

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We see what you mean in your assessment, James. The most likely explanation, though, is that it is a male Whitethroat (grey head points to a male) which has become a tad scruffy, perhaps during the nesting process. The flimsy, weedy perch looks too weak to support a Fieldfare; this added to the long, white edged tail, the long thin legs, the white eye-ring, red-brown back and unspotted pale underparts, plus dark-tipped pale bill all point to it being a Whitethroat.

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