Hoary Redpoll @ Montrose

[Nick Minor]

I'm surprised nobody has posted about this, but there have been reports from multiple people of Hoary Redpolls today at Montrose. The highest count was two individuals among a group of Common Redpolls, and Fran Morel says there may have even been 3.

 I headed out there late today (3:45ish) and found 1 bird that looked good for Hoary Redpoll--like a perfect, textbook Hoary--among a group of 12 Common Redpolls in the southeast corner of the hedge. The bird was especially pale on its underside, with few visible streaks on the flanks and the undertail coverts, and an overall larger size and bulkier look than the Common Redpolls around it; all this indicates that it was a more extreme individual, and if I was looking at the same bird as others, there seems to be a general agreement that there's an especially extreme Hoary around (Hornemann's?). I'm by no means certain about any subspecific ID as I don't have much experience whatsoever with Redpolls, but the bird was definitely a Hoary Redpoll, and one that stuck out like a sore thumb from the Common Redpolls around it.

It was an AWESOME sighting, especially since I had arrived only 5 minutes earlier at a relatively dead montrose.

Read more on my eBird post: http://bit.ly/U4jM7X

[Matthew Cvetas]

A Hoary Redpoll is at Montrose right now near the water feature. Another bird is borderline Hoary/intermediate. Both are female/immature type redpolls with limited streaking on the flanks and noticeable white streaking up the center of the back, secondaries rimmed with white, and broad white marks on the wing coverts. One bird has one very faint streak on otherwise clean undertail coverts; the other has one obvious center streak.

Having gone through my photos, these are the best I have. Note the undertail coverts are in shadow and should not be washed out. Other photos do show one very faint streak here.


Hoary Redpoll by mcvetas, on Flickr


Hoary Redpoll by mcvetas, on Flickr


Hoary Redpoll by mcvetas, on Flickr

Here's the intermediate bird, lower left. It's pretty intriguing, too.

[Greg Neise]

Bravo!

[Keith A. McMullen]

Great find and excellent photo, Matt!

Keith

[Keith A. McMullen]

Forgot to add....very nice for documentation purposes

[Scott Cohrs]

Two demons recently exorcised....  Careful, you might run out of birds to curse about soon!

Scott

[Marion Miller]

Congratulations Matthew.  Glad you got this nemesis!

Marion

[Matthew Cvetas]

I just wanted to add that I did find an image that shows a partial view of the rump and it is lightly streaked.

Personally, I think this bird scores a 13 on the Sibley Redpoll Character Index, which is good for Hoary.

4 - rump
4 - flanks
5 - undertail coverts - better photos show there is one faint streak there, whereas mine appear clean.

[Josh Engel]

Here are a bunch more photos from this morning of the hoariest redpoll of the lot to add to the fray. I also in included a photo of this morning's Common Yellowthroat so that we at least have one bird that's easy to identify.

Josh

[Keith A. McMullen]

Nice shots, Josh. The YELLOWTHROAT would be a nice CBC bird, not that some haven't been present in past years CBC's around the state. Just adds a little excitement to have unexpected species stick around  to be counted

Good birdings,

Keith

[Josh Engel]

Rob Curtis added an excellent series of photos of the Hoary Redpoll to his website:

http://theearlybirder.com/finches/hoary-redpoll/index.htm

Josh

[Matthew Cvetas]

Rob Curtis added an excellent series of photos of the Hoary Redpoll to his website:

http://theearlybirder.com/finches/hoary-redpoll/index.htm

Josh

I was just about to add this. Thanks, Josh.

This series in particular is exactly the same bird/time/location/pose as my first blurry shot.



FYI - Some of the others on that page are Common Redpolls.

[Greg Neise]

Rob Curtis added an excellent series of photos of the Hoary Redpoll to his website:

http://theearlybirder.com/finches/hoary-redpoll/index.htm

Josh

Beware, though ... the page is a little confusing. There are several pictures of Common Redpoll that are clearly misidentified.

[Geoffrey A. Williamson]

Greg: you're confusing me.  I'm not sure what you mean with respect to Rob's page.  I think I'm especially hung up on your use of the word "clearly."  Can you be more specific?

[Greg Neise]

Greg: you're confusing me.  I'm not sure what you mean with respect to Rob's page.  I think I'm especially hung up on your use of the word "clearly."  Can you be more specific?

I see at least 4 images on that page that do not depict a Hoary Redpoll.