Snow Bunting in Daily Mail

[Jason Green]

Yep, the one in the photo is 100% female chaffinch with slight leucism. But I suppose this doesn't have to mean she didn't see one - it was probably a photo researcher who may not have known what to look for when putting the pic online.

TB - it's partly leucistic - kind of partial albinoism

[Oscar2006]

Chaffinch! (with bad hair!)

[KeenTeen17]

Originally Posted by Jason Green

Yep, the one in the photo is 100% female chaffinch with slight leucism. But I suppose this doesn't have to mean she didn't see one - it was probably a photo researcher who may not have known what to look for when putting the pic online.

TB - it's partly leucistic - kind of partial albinoism

got it in one!

[tameblackbirds]

ah now i know leucism (pigmentation)

[Jason Green]

Before I read through the article I assumed that the image shown was one taken by the observer - then read about her experience with these birds, so obviously not her innocent mistake (I've had plenty of them )

So do you think the researcher was going by her description of a bird with some white plumage, or something else?

[solus]

So it feeds with Chaffinches, looks like a Chaffinch with some aberrant white feathering and - if that photo is of the bird (and I suspect it may well be as it sure as anything isn't a "stock" Snow Bunting pic!) it IS a Chaffinch!

Oh - and there's not been a whisper on any of the rare bird forums/lines etc. about a garden-feeding Snow Bunting in Cornwall.

Poor lady is clearly NOT "an ornithologist", those bins look heavy, antique and possibly ex-naval (and possibly virtually unusable) and she went on an expensive organised trip to Norway where the leaders failed to point out any Snow Buntings? Oh dear! That reminds me of a chat I had a few years ago with an elderly lady who had been on a Norwegian coastal cruise and the "resident ornithologist" showed the "clients" a flock of Snow Buntings which most definitely were not! I can't recall what she said they actually were, but she knew he was misleading folk because that's what they all wanted to see!

Cornwall Lady would have done better to spend a much cheaper winter weekend on the North Norfolk Coast with one of the reliable bird guides....

[ChrisJB]

It is clearly a Chaffinch. What a silly story. Why didn't the lady just find some decent beach in North Norfolk in winter or go up on to the Cairngorm plateau if she wanted to see a Snow Bunting? Norway indeed.

Regards, Chris

[Jason Green]

Lets see if she signs up with WAB to talk about her sighting further...

[muscardinus]

I can hardly stop laughing - to think a national paper publishes such complete rubbish.

Mrs Davies is clearly a beginner and doesn't know what she's talking about - there's absolutely nothing wrong with that - but for this to be published without anyone on the paper noticing or checking with the RSPB press office or their own nature correspondent is simply staggering. Still, what do you expect from the Mail?

[Hedge Witch]

Of dear, this story makes me cringe