wleepoin

not too sure about the Silver-backed Needletail ID, pls correct us if we are wrong. Thx!

HKBWS Boat-trip
15th April, 2012

A perfect ending of a nice day out.

Cheers
PWMK

[ Last edited by wleepoin at 15/04/2012 22:12 ]

brendank

At the time I genuinely believed there was one Silver-backed Needletail yet now that I look at my photos I start to doubt that. The photos I had of the purported Silver-backed Needletail weren't so clear. I agree the amount of white on the one bird appears restricted but looking through the photos on orientalbird club of Silver-backed the throats all seem more grey than this bird. I'm not sure how much white Silver-backed can show on the throat and I suppose there is some variability. Maybe this is within the range of variability?

wleepoin

Hi Brendank,
We too had some doubt about our photo of the S-B-Needletail, until we saw a image by Peter Ericsson taken in Thailand:
http://www.pbase.com/image/122743499. It does look similar to our bird, see what you think.

Cheers
PWMK

John Holmes

Here's one of ours from yesterday....  

We didn't get any shots of the Needletails with less white on the throat, though.  Nice shots P & M, I think yours are within the "range of variability"*  for Silver-backed.  

( * Based on my post-trip perusal of "A Guide to the Swifts and Treeswifts of the World" by Phil Chantler and Gerald Driessens ! )

[ Last edited by John Holmes at 16/04/2012 14:48 ]

brendank

It seems in the pbase photo the throat is still quite grey whereas in the photo above it still looks quite white to me. This is the photo I got of the purported Silver-backed Needletail.

needletail.JPG (54.91 KB)

16/04/2012 10:25

Below is a photo of a White-throated Needletail from the birds of Korea website which seems to have a less extensively white throat. I would say our bird matches that reasonably well.

lpaul

My understanding and experience is that White-throated always shows a well defined pure white throat which is rather broad at the base. I think the 'pale' throated bird is clearly Silver-backed.

I certainly do not think the Birds of Korea photos are evidence for the pale throated bird being White-throated as a) they are not especially sharp photos and b) the bird looks more like Silver-backed to me especially given the apparent lack of pale lores...

vivian

Dear all
I have a poor image, The top one is White-throated Needletail.
But the below is Silver-backed Needletail?
or they are same?


thanks

lpaul

Brendan,

Can you post a link to the Birds of Korea website for the photos you posted above as I cannot find them. Cheers.

brendank

On this page if you scroll down a bit.

http://www.birdskorea.org/Birds/ ... dnews-2010-10.shtml