Thursday 17 November 2011

Is it a North American Red necked Grebe?

After looking at Rob Sandham's and my photos of the Red necked Grebe at Valley wetlands it is quite noticeable that it appears to have a noticeably long , quite extensively yellow coloured bill. Chris Jones mooted the idea of it possibly being a North American bird, which are supposed to show more yellow on the bill. However after googling a few pertinent key words I did come across quite an exciting sentence. This said "in Eastern Siberia and North America where Great crested Grebes are lacking, the Red necked Grebe is represented by a big, long billed subspecies holboellii. Has anyone else got any opinions on this?
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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous17 November 2011 at 22:01

    See comment below.....
    This looks a good candidate to me. Look at the bill in the 3rd picture!
    Cheers
    Marc

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous17 November 2011 at 22:07

    Look at Steve's picture a few posts ago - that lower mandible certainly looks to dominate the bill! Looking forward to seeing how this one developes.
    Cheers
    Marc

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous17 November 2011 at 22:20

    Saying that, a google of RNGrebe reveals more pics of birds taken in the UK which seem to have yellow bills. A google of holboelli shows one or two distinctive birds with dusky cheeks, although Garner does state that this feature is variable. Red necked Grebe found dead at ynys las yesterday too - from below the lower mandible of this bird seems quite yellow too. Hope the Penrhyn bird stays for the weekend.
    Cheers
    Marc

    ReplyDelete

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