badesc

Great set of pictures! I was in Hungary in July too. Good country for birding, but May should be even better.

You asked for corrections:

Red-footed Falcon is really another species than Amur Falcon. Amur Falcon is a very rare vagrant to Hungary (see http://www.rarebirds.hu/species.php?id=51).

The Red-breasted Flycatcher is a juvenile Eurasian Robin.

To the right of the Corn Bunting is a Tree Sparrow, but I guess you've noticed that.

The Skylark looks like a Crested Lark to me. The surroundings fit this species better than Skylark, which prefers a grassier habitat. It is a juvenile (note the white fringes on the wing) and a juvenile Skylark does not have such a long 'crest' (long feathers on the head). The bill is rather long for a Skylark, but fits a Crested Lark. And Skylarks also would show a pronouncing  primary-projection. Crested Lark has very long tertials (as in the picture) and primaries are generally not visible.

Bart

badesc

Quote:

Original posted by lyatming at 7/08/2013 19:03
Thank for ajohn and Bart.
As mentioned by the guide, the best season for birding is May in Hungary.
By the calls, it would be easy to find owls and woodpeckers.

By the way, Bart,
the red-breasted fly ...

Sure.

I must start by saying that a single picture can be different from a bird in motion and secondly that I can make a mistake.

But I feel your bird looks like a juvenile Robin in any way. I cannot find any character that does not match this species.

The character that I feel points most against Red-breasted Fly is that this bird clearly lacks the long whitish base on the outer tail feathers. The white that can be seen, looks like that of the undertail-coverts to me and the outer tail feathers lack any white.

Even with a view slightly from below, and in a good shot like yours, the white on the outer tail feathers should be visible, as it is in these examples (although these birds have a different age):

http://tinyurl.com/los4ayg

http://tinyurl.com/k9lgfxn

http://tinyurl.com/lw79whz

http://tinyurl.com/kktdnyu

When I look at you picture at the other website (birding.hu), the tail is not as sharp as in the one you posted here and might give the impression - but just the impression - that the outer tail feathers are white.

So far, I have not been able to find a picture of a juvenile Red-breasted Fly taken in summer. Most are adults or first-winters that turn-up as a vagrant in Western-Europe. Expect this one:

http://tinyurl.com/mpmee7w

Only the facial pattern can be judged and this is different from a juvenile Robin, because the head is brown and the throat is buffish, being more uniform in Robin. See for example the Robin on this page (scroll down a bit) http://tinyurl.com/lp5aho2 or this one http://tinyurl.com/jvhpqlt.

So to me, your bird is a Robin. I would be very interested to hear arguments that exclude this species and point to Red-breasted Flycatcher, however. But errors with this species seem to appear regularly.

[ Last edited by badesc at 8/08/2013 04:49 ]

badesc

Quote:

Original posted by lyatming at 8/08/2013 09:53
Thx, Bart,
In order to have more discussion, I have two more photos for the bird.
Here they are,
http://i141.photobucket.com/albu ... tria/IMG_8994_2_zps ...

Ha, more photo's.

My saying that a single picture can be different from a bird in motion (meaning that it can show some characters very well but others not or wrongly so) and that I can make a mistake both seems true…

The first picture, taken from behind the bird, reveals that it does have the long white base to the outer tail feathers. As pointed out yesterday, that does strongly support Red-breasted Flycatcher at any age.

Secondly, the facial pattern does show the contrast between a browning face and a buffish throat.

So, I must admit that you and your guide have been right. Photo's can be misleading.

Bart