Your Questions

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Birding queries and mystery photos identified by our experts

Seabird confusion

My daughter-in-law Q took these photos at Caister-on-Sea in Norfolk. I thought it might be a Balearic Shearwater, but would like to hear what you say it is.

Dave Gahan

Well, Dave, you are certainly A right that the bird your daughter-in-law photographed was a seabird. But, it is certainly not a shearwater (which in common with other ‘tubenoses’ has quite a distinctive bill shape, with a relatively ‘ blunt’, even hooked tip). This bird has a rather pointed, dagger-shaped bill. Also, the plumage is too black-and-white for a Balearic Shearwater, which are much browner-looking than this pied bird. What the bird is is a Guillemot, in winter plumage (or possibly a youngster in its first-winter plumage). The shape of the bill, the black-and-white, ‘penguin-like’ plumage (black on top, white below) and the black line behind the eye all confirm this identification.

Aberrant Wheatear?

Can you help me to identify Q a bird I saw recently on a newly ploughed field south-east of Pitstone Hill in Buckinghamshire? I think it is a Wheatear, but I am puzzled by the mainly white colouring – is it a leucistic bird, maybe? The photo is a ‘zoomed in’ clip from the original longdistance picture, taken with a Canon SX60 HS bridge camera. Chris Priestley, High Wycombe

Wow! That is a cracker, Chris. A We agree with your ID that this is a Wheatear (or Northern Wheatear, if you prefer). It appears to be another case of ‘schizochroic aberration’, which has seemingly affected mainly the body feathers, and left the tail feathers (rectrictres) and longer wing feathers (remiges) largely untouched. That is a very striking individual, indeed.

Flocks of Groppers?

Seen in a field close to Q Manchester Airport, were about 30 of these small birds. I think its a Grasshopper Warbler. I have never known these birds to flock, as they tend to be shy and solitary birds. When disturbed by a passing aircraft they would take to the air in a flitting type of flight returning after a few seconds. I thought I had better ask the experts, as some friends I was with have me thinking I’m wrong; but they cannot come up with a better answer.

Nigel Coote

Don’t be fooled by those A pesky field guides with crystal-clear pictures of streaky, buff-and-brown Grasshopper Warblers cavorting in the open.

As you suggest, these warblers are notorious skulkers, usually hidden in the bottom of a bramble and creeping along like mice, rather than flocking up in fields, showing well to photographers. Your bird is, in fact a Meadow Pipit, a streaky, buff and brown pipit which is well known for flocking up and cavorting in the open in grassy fields. Clues, apart from the behaviour, include the well-streaked breast and flanks, the pale eye-ring, the longish legs and the heavily streaked back. Generally found 50 or so pages earlier in the fieldguide…