Coloration-wise, sure. However there are at least a few European N. Wheatear photos on the web - tagged as first fall for whatever reason - that show more pointed primary and retrix profiles than comparable adults. My own photos of European/Greenland ssp aren't good enough for this comparison. I also have no idea how feather profile varies with population - Greenland ssp being an extreme migrant, but the European and Alaskan ones being no slouches either. The Portland Bill entry for 26th March 2011 suggests that feather shape could be a useful feature, with the usual caveat that you've got to get really good photographs to make that call: http://www.portlandbirdobs.org.uk/latest_mar2011.htm
It might be really interesting to look at good tail-end-on photos of this Wheatear in terms of feather shape rather than color. First approximation likelihood on age would be: proportion of adult males seen in the prior Wheatear invasions into the NorthEast ? Phil Jeffrey NJ On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 8:46 AM, Shaibal Mitra <shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu> wrote: > This is more difficult than it might seem. Although we can probably > exclude an adult male, distinguishing the other three age/sex combos in the > field is very difficult. > > This puts us around the same place we found ourselves back in 2001, when > Angus and others of us staked out the then state of the art in Long Island > wheatear analysis: > > http://www.oceanwanderers.com/NYWhtear.html > > Another (also possibly unanswerable) question is whether this bird is a > Greenland Wheatear, from eastern Arctic Canada, or possibly an Alaskan > Wheatear, beating along the trail from Beringia to Plumb Beach, as though > it were a Yellow Wagtail! > > <http://www.oceanwanderers.com/NYWhtear.html>Shai Mitra > Bay Shore > ------------------------------ > *From:* bounce-118101240-11143...@list.cornell.edu [ > bounce-118101240-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Elliotte Rusty > Harold [elh...@ibiblio.org] > *Sent:* Friday, October 03, 2014 6:55 AM > *To:* Arie Gilbert > *Cc:* NYSBIRDS-L@cornell edu > *Subject:* Re: [nysbirds-l] N. Wheater YES > > Could more details be given about the birs itself? E.g is it male or > female? > > > > ------------------------------ > Celebrate Italian Heritage with a Special Broadway Benefit Concert by the > World’s Longest Running Phantom in support of the CSI Italian Studies > program> > <http://csitoday.com/events/franc-dambrosios-broadway-the-phantom-unmasked/> > -- > *NYSbirds-L List Info:* > Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME> > Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES> > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > *Archives:* > The Mail Archive > <http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> > Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> > BirdingOnThe.Net <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html> > *Please submit your observations to **eBird* > <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>*!* > -- > -- "If you lie to the compiler, it will get its revenge" - Henry Spencer -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
