Little Brown Birds

aiki said:

This is an ace website. A small word of caution though - as it is Spanish there are some British birds missing (and some non-British birds included), and in a very few cases the bird shown is a distinctly different subspecies to that which occurs in Britain (eg Yellow Wagtail and Stonechat).

Glad you mentioned that Aiki , I've been meaning to query a Wagtail I saw last year in Spain.

Galatas said:

I've been meaning to query a Wagtail I saw last year in Spain.

A nice Spanish Wagtail, Motacilla flava iberiae.

A subspecies of the Yellow Wagtail which is not yet officially on the British List (but I saw one a couple of years ago that I really should get around to sending in the submission for!).

Thanks Roy , I thought it didn't look like either our Grey or Yellow species.

EDIT : For the benefit of our new members here are our British Grey and Yellow Wagtails for comparison.

Jason d said:

@Roy, you say a stripe that is ABOVE the eye is called supercilium. Is that the same if the stripe is THROUGH the eye, i.e bluetit?

I know that this has already been answered, but it's worth a further comment.

The supercilium and eye-stripe are different, but more experienced birders need to bear in mind that newer birdwatchers don't always realise this! Fortunately there are relatively few species that have prominent eye-stripes and a prominent supercilium - but a 'newbie' may wonder why a more experienced birdwatcher has said that, unlike Goldcrests, the Firecrest they two of them are watching has a black eyestripe, when they can clearly see a broad white stripe above the eye!    ;o)

Here is one of my sweet female sparrows in yesterday's snow which shows her markings quite well..............

And here is the male of the species..............

One of my very sweet Dunnocks...............

And the other one looking quite different because of the pose...............

Hope these help with your ID;s

Cheers Roy, I am definitely taking this in! Its brilliant! This is certainly on another level. Bird books will be dug out now for a closer read!

Cheers Wendy, certainly do help. I feel like I've taken over Red Kites thread, sorry, its just so interesting and educational.

Need sleep, early shift tomorrow!

Lovely photos WendyBartter!

Unknown said:

@Roy, you say a stripe that is ABOVE the eye is called supercilium. Is that the same if the stripe is THROUGH the eye, i.e bluetit?

I know that this has already been answered, but it's worth a further comment.

The supercilium and eye-stripe are different, but more experienced birders need to bear in mind that newer birdwatchers don't always realise this! Fortunately there are relatively few species that have prominent eye-stripes and a prominent supercilium - but a 'newbie' may wonder why a more experienced birdwatcher has said that, unlike Goldcrests, the Firecrest they two of them are watching has a black eyestripe, when they can clearly see a broad white stripe above the eye!    ;o)

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Just posted a Bird Head Topography chart into Gear Guide

 

S

For advice about Birding, Identification,field guides,  binoculars, scopes, tripods,  etc - put 'Birding Tips'   into the search box

Another common LBJ is the Linnet

Not to be confused with Twite , which I don't have any photos of.