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Post by rowanberry on Jun 10, 2015 8:15:35 GMT
I had a question about the bird I asked for an id on yesterday evening... After I posted the photo, I tried going through my bird book and came across a shrike and was sure that was what it was. Looking now at the pictures of the wheatear, I can see it doesn't have the white bar above the black feathers on the wings which a shrike does...but from the book I never would have known to identify this correctly. The images of the wheatear show it having quite a buff-coloured breast, which would have thrown me off completely. In the photo above the beak is partially obscured, although I could see from the book's images that the two birds do have very different beaks...my question is, how else can you tell the difference between them??? Maybe I need to get a better bird book! Have been debating which would be the best one for ages.
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Post by Harold Smith on Jun 10, 2015 8:39:25 GMT
I think you will find it is a male Wheatear. A Shrike has small white flashes on the edge of its wings. The Wheatear doesn't have any. Also the throat is the wrong colour for a shrike. It would be paler, near white.
Harold.
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Post by htcdude on Jun 10, 2015 8:42:51 GMT
Shrikes will usually be found on top of and around bushes, Wheatear tend to be on the ground or fenceposts\walls etc and have a very upright stance compared to a Shrike. Although you can't see it in your photo Wheatears are considerably smaller compared to say a Great Grey Shrike. Red-backed are smaller but markings are noticeably different. Colouring and markings are similar for say male Wheatear and Great Grey Shrike but Wheatear will usually have rusty red\brown colouring too. Sort of some of the differences anyway Nige
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Post by alphawolf on Jun 10, 2015 21:09:04 GMT
Don't shrike's beaks have a different function as they need to tear meat? My resolution is that if the bill was slightly curved then it is definitely a shrike. Look and compare photos online for the difference in beaks. The photo isn't clear enough for me to deduce it, but as coming of a mediterranean origin, I think I'am legible to answer this
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faz
New Member
Posts: 22
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Post by faz on Jun 11, 2015 6:43:53 GMT
Wheatear for me 100%
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Post by rowanberry on Jun 11, 2015 8:31:29 GMT
That's all been very helpful, thanks everyone... I think I understand the differences between the two a bit better now.
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