Saturday 7 November 2009

Taiga or Not Taiga (Possible Taiga Flycatcher or RB Flycatcher)

Late Friday afternoon the phone rings and its local birder Phil Clark asking Lisa if I am around as he may have spotted a rare Taiga Flycatcher and he would like it photographed to aid identification. Unfortunately I was still at work so Lisa took up,the challenge and grabbed her Camera as the location wasn't far from us. With fading light at 1640 pm Lisa pushed the ISO to 800 and a -1.0 exposure compensation and an aperture of 5.6 at 400mm. This was done to try and raise the shutter speed but even with those settings the shutter speeds achieved reached only 1/80th and 1/60th of a second which is far to slow for a hand held operation and a constantly moving subject.
The bird was looked for today by several local experts with myself and camera tagging along without success.


The two shots depicted are the best that could be achieved under the circumstances and according to the more experienced birder they do Identify the defining characteristics of Taiga Fly catcher. The Taiga as most of you experts will know could be an eastern sub-species of the Red Breasted Flycatcher or a species in its own right. The defining features I am given to understand are as follows, a black beak, white fringing of the tertials, black tail coverts and black upper tail coverts. The throat is likely to have a lead grey colouring and would encircle a red patch if adult. The Grey is evident in some of the photo's. If this is a Taiga then it is a first for Cornwall and I think a fourth for the country. The full raw images will be handed out to the experts I know who will hopefully clear up any doubt either way. I emphasise that the species was found by Phil Clark and photographed by Lisa. I did not see the bird and I have now turned to drink!! Comments welcome but please be kind. Hopefully the way I have written this will lead the readers to believe that Lisa new what she was doing with her camera. Please click on the images to enlarge



10 comments:

  1. Sounds like she was lucky to have been able to photograph a bird most never get to see. Congratulations. Sure hope it is a Taiga.

    www.wildlifearoundus.blogspot.com

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  2. A perky little fellow, but naturally, I have no idea what it is. Your Header is just beautiful!

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  3. Good work Lisa to get this shot, I hope it turns out to be the Taiga or RB for you.

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  4. looks very interesting well done

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  5. Great looking images,well done Lisa.I think it could be a RB Flycatcher,which often cocks its tail.
    Hope I'm wrong.
    John.

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  6. Well done Lisa. Under the given circumstances you did very well indeed. Enough I think to get a positive I.D which ever way it goes.

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  7. Great work Lisa. Well done. Fingers crossed for you.

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  8. Hi everyone. Thank you for your encouraging comments. I was very lucky to get the chance to photograph it - but would not have done so without Phil spotting it. it was, as Sam explained, late pm and the light was against us. It would be fantastic if we were able to cofirm it. Fingers crossed. Google images on the link below might help? Copy and paste to your browser.

    http://www.birdskorea.org/Images/images2009/05/Taiga-Flycatcher_NM-01.jpg

    Lisa

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  9. Hi Lisa,I'm delighted your rare fined is what you said it was.
    Fantastic news, well done to you and Phil Clark.
    John.

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  10. Wow! Nice one Phil and Lisa ....... well done.

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