Bob:
For the reasons that you mentioned I believe the eider is a first-winter
female. Dave and I discussed the age and sex after reading a the same excellent
book.
Almost the first thing we noticed were the size of the feathers on the mantle
which are small like a young bird.
The tertials are all dark which can be seen in a number of the photos people
posted online. And in Owen Schmidt’s photo of the bird diving I think you can
see the pattern on the secondaries that Reeber describes as being half pale
that sexes it as a female.
Young males should also have more white coming in all over it at this stage.
Plus young males are supposed to have two white spots on the breast which I
never saw while watching it dive repeatedly.
Shawneen Finnegan
Beaverton
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 17, 2018, at 8:10 AM, Bob Archer <rabican1@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:POST: Send your post to obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
I see some folks putting the eider in ebird as an adult female. I was
wondering what they were basing this on?
I thought it looked like a first-winter female when I saw it Saturday.
1) Narrow wing bars, the lower wing bar seems narrow to me, an adult should
have nice broad borders to the edges of the speculum.
2) the speculum did not seem to have a bright blue sheen, a first-winter
would be duller here than an adult. But that would be a light factor as well.
3) I tried to see the tertials, I thought I spied them a few times and I did
not see white on the tips, dull with no white lines. They should be shorter
which might explain my difficulty in seeing them.
4) The head feathers look old and worn to me, white blotchy look
5) The body feathers look mottled which is how Reeber describes the look as
compared to more streaked looking pattern of adult.
Bob Archer
PDX
