I had actually been puzzling over the age of this bird, and would be interested to know which features you used to age it Ho-fai.
The bird has clearly moulted out of juvenile plumage (which is largely white) into an adult-like body plumage. I would not have expected a bird in it's first calendar year to have completed body moult by October (compare this bird in December:
http://orientalbirdimages.org/se ... _ID=&pagesize=1).
However, the wings and tail are not those of an adult, with more narrow bars rather than the broad black and white bars associated with adults. I cannot make out any moult contrast in the wing or tail to suggest the bird is moulting into adult plumage, and the feathers appear to all be the same age.
The best conclusion I had reached was that this was a second calendar-year individual, which had moulted into adult plumage but still retains juvenile wing/tail feathers. I'm not sure if this is correct though, and I would expect at least some moult - which is why I'm confused!
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Last edited by ajohn at 15/10/2010 17:39 ]
