Answers & solutions
Compare your answers with our answers and reasoning below. How well did you do, this month?
BIRD 1
This bird has the obvious structure of a so-called ‘gamebird’: small head, short hooked bill, plump, rounded body and short legs. Look closer at those legs and you will see they are feathered, which immediately puts the bird in the grouse sub-family. There are four UK species: Red Grouse, Ptarmigan, Black Grouse and Capercaillie. Males of all species are well marked and distinctive. This is a more cryptically patterned female. Female Ptarmigan have much more extensively white bellies than this bird. The grey, brown, black and white barring of this bird, and the ‘orange’ breast all point to this being a female Black Grouse (or Greyhen) or Capercaillie. But female Capercaillies are very large, with much larger bills than this bird, which is a female Black Grouse.
Key features
n Typical 'gamebird' proportions
n Feathered legs of a grouse
n Barred ‘orange’ breast
n Barred grey, brown, black and white plumage
BIRD 2
Here is an evocative photograph of a swimming bird. It could well be a sunrise over a mist-draped Scottish loch, somewhere in the Highlands. But what is that bird? It has the look and proportions of a duck, but none of our ducks have fine pointed, upturned bills like this bird. Even the fine-billed mergansers have more bluntly tipped bills (or even slightly hooked like a cormorant bill, in the case of the Goosander). Grebe bills are more similar, but they are either more symmetrical, or in the case of the Black-necked Grebe (which has an ‘upturned’ bill), much shorter. No, this is a diver, and only one diver has a bill like this: Red-throated Diver. This conclusion is emphasised by the smoothly rounded head, the uniquely fine stripes on the back of the neck and the plain, dark back.
Key features
n Distinctive uptilted, upturned bill
n Smoothly rounded head
n Fine barring on back of neck
n Plain dark back
BIRD 3
There are no prizes for saying this is a bird of prey. That hooked bill is a bit too much of a giveaway to be giving anything away for free! The bill is a whopper, much bigger than that expected for any falcon, harrier, hawk, buzzard or kite. That is the bill of an eagle. And that impression is also given by the very broad-based wings (though the overall structure is slightly obscured by the ‘stooping’ posture). There are, of course, two eagle species in the UK, Golden Eagle and White-tailed Eagle. Both are largely dark brown like this bird; especially immature birds, which also have black and white in the tail like this bird. The tail, however, is notably short and stubby, which immediately points to this being a White-tailed Eagle. That extra heavy bill backs this conclusion up perfectly.
Key features
n Massive hooked bill
n Short tail
n Very broad wings
n Largely dark brown plumage
BIRD 4
Keen-eyed readers may note a familiarity about this bird. It comes from a sequence from which another photograph was used in a recent feature. Judging by those thin black legs and classic perching bird feet (three toes forward, one back), this is a smallish passerine, perched on some pink granite-like rock. You can’t see its head properly because it is masked by a bill-full of largely white feathers (presumably gathered to line a nest). There is however, a hint of a warm brown crown. The underparts are almost wholly white, as are the undertail coverts (beneath a relatively short tail) and the long wings are blackish with broad white wing-bars. This distinctive ‘ headless’ bird is a female Snow Bunting, gathering Ptarmigan feathers (for which you can have an extra point for a successful ID!)
Key features
n Fine legs and structure suggest a passerine
n White underparts
n Black-and-white wings
n Beak filled with Ptarmigan feathers!
BIRD 5
Here we have what is surely a crow, judging by the dark plumage, the strong legs and feet and the thick black bill with plentiful feathering at the base. The plumage is not wholly ‘ black’ like that of a Carrion Crow, Rook or Raven, with grey on the mantle, fore-flanks and lower breast. So, it must be either a Jackdaw or Hooded Crow. The bill is too thick for a Jackdaw, and the eye is black, not pale. So, this must be a Hooded Crow. But, only the head and upper breast, most of the wings and tail feathers are black in Hooded Crow, the rest is pale grey. This bird is a hybrid Hooded Crow x Carrion Crow; a form commonly found near the Great Glen Fault at Inverness and the surrounding area.
Key features
n Classic crow appearance
n Dark eye, robust bill
n Grey and black plumage
n Pattern reveals mixed species ancestry
BIRD 6
You have to look a bit carefully to work out what is going on in this photograph. It shows a swimming bird in a slightly odd position, with head low near the water, with the bill pointing roughly towards the photographer and both eyes showing. Those eyes are a startling bright red, the bill is short and black, and pointed with a pale tip. Most striking are the great yellow-orange tufts behind the eyes, perhaps as extensions of the ear coverts. The top of the head is black, as is the back and what is probably a flank is showing reddish orange. This bird can only be the wonderful Slavonian Grebe, in breeding plumage; a bird which, in the UK, only nests in a few selected Highland lochs and lochans.
Key features
n Startlingly red eyes
n Pale tipped dark bill
n Outlandish yellow-orange tufts behind eyes
n Reddish flanks, black back
MY FAVOURITE SITE “I AM RATHER FOND OF THE CLIMB UP CAIRN GORM MOUNTAIN FROM THE SKI CENTRE: PTARMIGAN COUNTRY!” MIKE WEEDON, ASSISTANT EDITOR