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White Wagtail ocularis 白鶺鴒

I'm sure this is ocularis rather than lugens.
- I don't think the eyestripe broadens as much as expected for lugens, and is actually quite narrow still where it meets the black nape. The eyestripe on ocularis is normally slightly wider behind the eye than in front, but no to the same extent as lugens and without showing the 'step' in broadness that lugens commonly shows.
- The upperparts are very pale grey - although first year lugens can have grey upperparts, they are not usually this pale. On pale lugens the crown would not normally be black as it is on this bird.  
- Importantly, the rump is also grey with only the centres of the longest upper tail coverts black - lugens should show more black on the rump than this.
- The greater coverts have white fringes but this is typical of ocularis. I would expect lugens to show more white than this in the greater coverts, but also in the median coverts (usually mostly white with just a narrow dark streak on the shaft) and tertials, and possibly even the primaries and secondaries. The lesser coverts would normally be darker than this on a black-backed subspecies like lugens, at least with black feather centres and often mostly black.

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Original posted by Roman at 5/02/2021 11:43

Thanks John, This is helpful again.
I thought I understand this two race but seems I am definitely wrong on that bird, even I have seen this individual and watching it careful, this is important to c ...
This bird also looks like ocularis to me - typical head pattern, pale grey back, grey lesser coverts, not much white in primaries/secondaries. The white in the greater & median coverts is a bit more extensive than on the first post, but you can see the dark centres to the GC and this pattern is well within range for ocularis.

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