Bird ID again

[simon taylor]

Originally Posted by richnfamous

No pics and precious little info...

Was out with the dog today near an abandoned orchard when I saw a thrush-sized bird, brown plumage with a bright orange-red rump disappear into a hedge. It appeared to be very shy and kept its distance - I couldn't get near it at all.

What might it be?

I'll eat my pants if it wasnt a fem/ 1w Black Redstart. This is the time of year now for Black Redstart and last Friday night's weather produced a good fall of them. Many examples were found all over Cornwall on the Saturday. I found two myself at Stithians which was a patch tick for me. Check the area again tomorow as it may still be around.

Ps - Vincent's picture is a male. A female or 1w is brown all over with orange around the backside

[richnfamous]

Originally Posted by simon taylor

I'll eat my pants if it wasnt a fem/ 1w Black Redstart.

You won't have to - that's what it was, I'm sure. It looked just like a LBJ (from behind) apart from the rump. I overestimated the size a bit but it wasn't around for long.

http://www.fairislebirdobs.co.uk/Sig...20Redstart.jpg

Thanks for the helip ID'ing it - it's a first for me. Are they always shy?

[Picidae]

Originally Posted by richnfamous

Thanks for the helip ID'ing it - it's a first for me. Are they always shy?

I did suggest Black Redstart, perhaps you missed it They are actually less shy than Common Redstart in my experience but that's probably because CR are spring/summer birds which tend to be shy when breeding and moulting.

They can look quite brown too but it's very difficult to age/sex female types as 1cy can look very similar to adult females. Here's one of a pair I saw a few days ago which was notably brown in the field: