Good afternoon All
I visited Conwy on Sunday and took a picture of what i though was a Curlew but i have just been informed that it is actually a Whimbrel.
Now i have been bird watching for a matter of 2 weeks and have had a look at my App on my I Phone and i cannot tell much of a difference.
Could someone enlighten me with the breed as this is a matter of another species or not :-)
Watch Seymour show up now and tell me I got it wrong :)
Fingers crossed :-)
must admit size of the bird helps and from pics its hard to judge scale
Anyway we can get him banned to eh?
BigOg, Just to confirm the head pattern. This is one I took earlier (May 2011 on the Teifi Estuary).
Thanks for all your responses but i am still none the wiser but i have taken my viewing off the Whimbrel until i have 100% confirmation. (DOH)
Anyway here is another shot i found to assist
Although i am new to this but i am going Curlew.
Regards
Keith
If you could post a larger copy it might be possible to bring out a little more detail to help with ID
HGi-
it's a Eurasian Curlew. The bill is typical . The upper wings also look nicely variegated .
:)
S
Hi BigOg, and welcome to the Conwy Community pages - and to birdwatching! Sorry it's taken a week or so to reply, but I've been away.
Curlews and whimbrels are never easy, but here are some clues:
- Whimbrels winter in west Africa (and very occasionally one or two in Cornwall); Curlews are on the Welsh coast in the winter and on the moors in the summer
- Whimbrels are smaller, with a shorter bill (but beware of male curlews, as they have a shorter bill than females)
- Whimbrels have a dark brown stripe on the crown, which creates the appearance of a paler stripe above the eye
- And if you hear them call, it's easy: whimbrels have seven short whistles, and curlews have either a long 'cur-lee' call or a fast bubbling call
So, put all that together and I think your photo is a Curlew. It's too early for whimbrels (late April and May is when you'd expect to see them at Conwy), it has a long bill and no crown stripe.
Hope that helps!
Julian
Hi Galatas
The top two are whimbrels (short bill, crown stripe) and the lower one is curlew (stockier, long bill, no stripe on the head). See my reply to BigOg for more details.
Hope this helps
It's male Curlews that have the shorter bills :)
And you're right!
J.