Wagtail in Conwy

[marcbuzzard]

Hi all,
I'd be interested to hear people's views on the wagtail that has been present for the last two days at Conwy RSPB reserve. It is being put out as a male 'Blue-headed'.
The picture was taken by Mike Nesbitt.
Thanks in advance
Marc

[Colin Key]

This looks good for a male iberiae to me - I'm surrounded by them at the moment.

Colin

[Brian S]

The lack of a white crescent below the eye is good for iberiae, but most important would be the call. You MUST try to get a recording: iberiae shares the buzzy, rolling 'srrreeep' call of the southern group, which include feldegg .

I would suggest that the call would be the only way of getting it accepted as a first of this race for the UK. I would know, as my record from Suffolk, has finally not been accepted by the BOURC, because I did not transcribe the call.

Brian S

[PeterD]

Hi all,
I'd be interested to hear people's views on the wagtail that has been present for the last two days at Conwy RSPB reserve. It is being put out as a male 'Blue-headed'.
The picture was taken by Mike Nesbitt.
Thanks in advance
Marc

Marc,
A really beautiful bird. Wish I had Colin's luck:smile:. I would like to be surrounded by these.
Has it settled in the reserve? Can you record its call? I hope you can.

Peter

[Brian S]

There is, of course the possibility that this might be an iberiaexcinereocapilla intergrade - I've apparently seen a few in Corsica, though most there actually looked like normal cinereocapilla. Iberian Wagtail typically has a narrow, but complete white supercilium, so the slight break in the supercilium, apparent in this photo (but perhaps not in the field?) might bring this to mind, but in other respects (blueness of the grey on the head) this bird seems fine on plumage.

I simply can't see this bird as one of those hybrids, that have some iberiae characters, seen in sw France.

Some images at Tarsiger.com, showing the colour and narrowness of the super above the eye.

http://www.tarsiger.com/gallery/index.php?p=pics&sp=search&lang=eng&species=87400&family=&sex=0&age=0&country=&manner=&year=&photo=&pic_method=0&pic_type=0&place=&order=lisays_paiva+DESC&sel=3&find=find&r=2

Brian S

[marcbuzzard]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. The bird is still present this evening and seems to have gone to roost in the reeds. The call is a co.... sounding 'flavissima' with a buzzy ring to it. It is certainly easy to pick out from the flavissima bird that is also present. I, along with Mike Duckham, reserve assistant warden, and Rob Sandham, the finder were all out in the Coto Donana a few weeks ago and saw many 'iberiae' and this bird certainly reminded us all of them in both look and call. I tried to get a recording on my mobile this evening, but it hasn't picked it up. More pics here courtesy of Rob Sandham.

[Tim Vaughan]

Studying this bird on the estuary (when not distracted by the nearby Citrine Wagtail !) I was struck by the long, narrow white supercilium, ear coverts that were darker grey-blue than the rest of the head, an extensive clean white throat with no apparent yellow mixed in and a sharp, piercing call heard once in flight that I noted as vaguely reminiscent of Grey Wagtail; a harsh "tchik"